This story originally appeared on fortworthreport.org.
By Bob Francis
The first tower of the new Texas A&M Fort Worth campus is rising skyward, but the work going on behind the scenes is just as important.
That was the word from the 2026 Innovation Summit on March 2 as university officials touted partnering with industry leaders on developing programs ranging from aerospace to health care. About 100 business and academic leaders attended the event.
Nearly four and a half years after the announcement of Texas A&M’s plans for Fort Worth, the school wants collaborations that make sense for this area, said John Goff, founder and CEO of Crescent Real Estate.
“They want the partnerships to have lasting impact, and they want to make sure that it reflects the sectors from a workforce perspective that are best for Fort Worth,” he said. “Here we have aerospace, defense, health care and workforce development. All that makes sense. I’m very proud of the progress and have been lucky to get to be a part of it from the beginning.”
Goff was co-chairman of Fort Worth Now, the precursor to the Fort Worth Tarrant County Innovation Partnership that now aids businesses in collaborating with Texas A&M.
The leaders aimed to build out the academic and industry partnerships that will eventually be housed in Texas A&M-Fort Worth’s Research and Innovation Building, which is currently being designed. They met in small groups to discuss the role the university could play in aerospace, artificial intelligence and health care with a focus on workforce education and training.
As he sees longtime Fort Worth companies such as Lockheed and American Airlines explore such partnerships, Goff said he also sees new industries begin inquiries about coming to — or increasing their presence in — the city.
Probably Monsters, for example, is a video game company that now calls Fort Worth home. The company needs strong talent coming out of universities, and the downtown campus will fit the bill, he said.
Texas A&M Fort Worth will have a Virtual Production Institute that is an extension of a similar operation at the university system’s Bryan-College Station campus. The institute will support businesses related to film, video, virtual reality and other mixed-reality environments.
Meeting such needs was what drove Fort Worth Now to focus on attracting a university to the city.
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