-
As the most comprehensive resource available for those involved in technology-based economic development, SSTI offers the services that are needed to help build tech-based economies. Learn more about membership...
-
Subscribe to the SSTI Weekly Digest
Each week, the SSTI Weekly Digest delivers the latest breaking news and expert analysis of critical issues affecting the tech-based economic development community. Subscribe today!
State and Local Tech-based ED RoundUp
Savannah, Georgia
CyberGeorgia, a pilot effort of the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism (GDITT) and the Business and Education Technology Alliance of Southeast Georgia to create more tech-based companies outside the Atlanta metro region, was launched last month in Savannah. According to the April 17 issue of the Augusta Chronicle, the program will include an incubator, investment matching services, intellectual property assistance, and a connection between the area
universities and new tech businesses. If successful, GDITT anticipates creating similar centers in other regions of the state, the paper reports.
Chicago
The IT Resource Center, an 18-year-old Chicago nonprofit organization, has developed the Accelerator Project to help initiate new Community Technology Centers (CTCs) or help existing CTCs expand their services. The IT Resource Center believes CTCs are among the best strategies to foster digital literacy. In 2002, the IT Resource Center will select up to 10 participants in the CTC Accelerator Project through a competitive application process. The cash value of each package will vary depending on the applicant’s current software and equipment and the specific needs outlined in its proposal. It is estimated each participant will receive a package worth up to $40,000 in the first year. Participants that continue to meet eligibility requirements and show satisfactory progress will be eligible for upgrades and continued staffing worth up to $20,000 per year in the second and third years of the project.
Michigan
The nearly 1,600 Michigan tool, die and mold making firms that employ approximately 50,000 people will have a new, unified voice in state and federal policy matters thanks to the newly formed Coalition for the Advancement of Michigan Tooling Industries. Included among the first items on the organization's agenda is securing and increasing federal funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
Quebec
The Quebec Biotechnology Innovation Center, located in the Laval Science and High Technology Park, became the first non-American recipient of the National Business Incubation Association's Randall M. Whaley Incubator of the Year Award at this year's NBIA annual conference. Founded in 1996, QBIC is the key element of $250 million Biotech City (see the June 8, 2001 edition of the SSTI Weekly Digest for more details).
Rhode Island
The Rhode Island Technology Council (RITECH) has received a $2.7 million two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to train unemployed workers including women, minorities and the disabled in the fields of engineering, programming and tech support. The Technology Partnership Project, a collaboration among RITECH with the Community College of Rhode Island and several companies, will give 500 existing workers an opportunity to receive skilled information technology training and will give an additional 250 individuals an opportunity to train for future IT positions.
Utah
The Utah Business and Economic Development has awarded $2 million through its Centers of Excellence Program (COEP) to support 15 centers and two planning grants. One of the oldest and most successful models of state-assisted, university-industry research collaboration, the Centers of Excellence Program helps with the commercialization of late-stage developmental technologies that have potential for economic development within Utah. Through FY 2001, projects supported by the 15-year old program had created 142 new high technology companies; applied for or received 125 new patents; signed 197 licenses signed between businesses/universities; and secured a 10.6:1 match on the state's investments.