The Committee was established in January 1993 as part of the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) Council for Industrial Development. Its main goals are: 

• To build a theory of industrial development of relevance to the regional economy. 
• To assess the contributions of enterprises and institutions (including UML) to the innovative performance of the regional economy. 

• CITA must be strategic, focused, and integrated in providing support for social science research and external funding.
• CITA must be active in reorienting standards of academic excellence in the social sciences at UML to serve the economic development mission.
• CITA must help establish an explicit system for reallocating the time and energy, and recognizing the contributions, of UML faculty to building capabilities for the economic development mission.
• CITA must take steps to make better use of relevant intellectual resources available to us in the region.
• CITA must help the University in spurring innovation in the region