Giving Compass' Take:

• Ben Unglesbee reports that Virginian universities have been engaged in a tech innovation push, which successfully attracted Amazon's HQ2, leaving the question: what next? 

• How can HQ2 be an advantage and a detractor for cities? What will it mean for Virginia? 

• Learn about HQ2's impact on transportation. 

Shortly after Tim Sands took over as Virginia Tech's president in the summer of 2014, he tasked a group of staff and administrators with dreaming up an "innovation district" that could help fulfill his idea of what a modern land-grant university should be.

The idea for such a district — which took its name from a Brookings Institution report — was to expand the primarily rural university's footprint in urban areas and in fields where the economy was growing. It would create a venue where "talent and space and ideas" would be "colliding," said Steve McKnight, vice president for Virginia Tech's National Capital Region, who led the team working on the innovation district concept.

A couple years in, the team had identified needs in the Washington, D.C., area and ideas were taking shape. "The pace and velocity were going to be determined by our ability to find a partner to help support it," McKnight said.

And then, in a lucky bit of timing, along came Amazon.

Administrators say the inter-city competition for the e-commerce giant's second headquarters (dubbed "HQ2") accelerated plans already in discussion to increase Virginia's tech talent pipeline and the presence of state universities in the Washington, D.C., region. The race to lure Amazon helped give those plans form and political momentum.

Now, with Amazon's decision, announced mid-November, to place half of HQ2 in Northern Virginia — and with it, 25,000 high-paying, largely tech-focused jobs — the plans are actually in motion. But the effort to recruit faculty, donors and corporate partners is just beginning.

"The truth is, this was a highly unusual opportunity, and we weren't sure we would win until the day it was announced," said Brandy Salmon, Virginia Tech's associate vice president for innovation and partnerships. "So there's been a lot of work on the concept design and the need, and how we can fulfill that. But this is still sort sort of Day Two, and there's still a lot of work to be done."

Read the full article about Virginia universities by Ben Unglesbee at Education Dive.