Virginia Governor's Tech Plan Defines CIT Roles

The future of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) became clearer on Wednesday with Governor Mark Warner's release of Commonwealth of Virginia Strategic Plan for Technology for 2002-2006. CIT has a lead position for half of the eight initiatives outlined in the 129-page document.

Highlights of "One Virginia," CIT's portion of the plan, call for:

• Increasing federal research and development funding to industry and Virginia’s colleges and universities. The plan recommends 75 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposals be submitted in March 2003 to increase Virginia's level of SBIR funding by 1 percent of the national total. Milestones also are set for more Advanced Technology Program funding in 2004.
• Increasing commercialization of intellectual property (IP) from Virginia’s labs, entrepreneurs, and institutions of higher education. The plan suggests publishing a guidebook of best practices and making university and laboratory IP easily accessible to interested companies by augmenting the marketing process through training and electronic channels.
• Increasing statewide broadband deployment, especially in rural areas. The plan recommends that one entity develop and coordinate broadband initiatives between the public and private sectors, create and implement incentives for commercial providers to increase their service areas, and serve as a central clearinghouse for existing broadband programs.
• Promoting technology-based economic development (TBED) by increasing the net number of tech firms in the state; helping firms grow their figures for sales, cost savings and private capital acquisition; creating e-business entrepreneurial networks; and expanding educational opportunities in export procedures for smaller companies.

Appendix 4 lays out a revised operating FY 2003 plan for CIT that identifies specific quantifiable goals for the state's lead TBED program with its $9.2 million budget — a decrease of 26 percent from FY 2002. Among the targets is leveraging $346.8 million in TBED for Virginia. Of that total, $250 million would stem from increased sales, savings and private capital, and $71.8 million would come in the form of federal research funds. The remaining $25 million is estimated to come from IP and commercialization activity, including the addition of 330 technology start-up companies in FY 2003.

The full strategic plan and a separate executive summary are available at: http://www.governor.state.va.us/