Construction crews tend to a project along South River Road in West Bend on Tuesday. Washington County businesses hope to get in on $2.5 million in work force development grants the Milwaukee 7 plans to dole out to create more high-tech and next-generation jobs for area employers.

WEST BEND - Washington County business officials hope to develop a compelling case to secure the area a portion of $2.5 million in regional talent-development funds, an economic development official said.

The Regional Workforce Alliance of Southeastern Wisconsin on Tuesday formally announced the launch of its WIRED Innovation Fund, a program that will award individual $20,000 to $250,000 grants to develop partnerships and activities to lure more next-generation job opportunities to the Milwaukee 7 region.

"These grants are going to be competitive," said John "Jack" Caldwell, executive director of Economic Development/Washington County.

The M-7 is an economic development effort teaming Washington, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth and Waukesha counties.

Each county has representation on the RWA, Caldwell said.

"We’ve gotten some information on the WIRED program, and we hope to get more, in order to ... see if there are some things that we can do in order to apply for those grant dollars," Caldwell said.