Centers looking to LIFT Long Island to the next level

BYLINE: Ambrose Clancy

It's a simple formula, according to LIFT: Innovation plus training equals growth.

So the Long Island Forum for Technology is working to launch homegrown technology centers aimed at boosting the region's economic growth by raising its "innovation quotient" and training workers for the technology field, according to LIFT President Ken Morrelly.

The innovation centers are a needed part of the region's new model of growth, Morrelly added. He cites the 2007 Long Island Index, which reports declining venture capital and federal funding flowing to the area.

"On Long Island, for the past decade at least, the fires of innovation have grown cold," the report said, and "the solution," according to Morrelly, "is moving a whole bunch of things in the right direction. "

Innovation centers represent one part.

The centers LIFT is proposing would bring together a variety of players - from industry to government to economic development organizations - to focus on technology and draw on the innovations of the state university system and other higher education institutions on Long Island.

"Bringing the technology sector together on Long Island has been long needed and long overdue," said Matthew T. Crosson, president of the Long Island Association. "An effort to bring people together is helpful. "

Because of the early stage of the developments, Morrelly declined to name individuals or groups interested in the centers. But he said he's been talking with community leaders to gauge what sorts of centers would be most appropriate.

"They need to choose what they want," he said.

There are possibilities in the areas of biomedicine, health care and the wine industry, as well as the technology of art and homeland security. LIFT is already involved in launching a homeland security center in Bethpage.

The innovation centers would be homegrown, though LIFT is now in the process of writing its first funding grants for the project. Morrelly thinks the centers could draw state and federal funding.

If the centers are to be successful, those involved in their creation will need to make fact-based decisions and avoid conflicts of interest, so LIFT is creating structures to eliminate conflicts over such issues as location.

To grow, Long Island needs to work as a region and avoid the little fiefdoms that have become obstacles to progress. "If it worked [in the past], we wouldn't be having this discussion," Morrelly said. "We have no ax to grind, except growth. We facilitate the engagement of people with common interests. "

Once needs have been assessed, Morrelly said, "The mission will determine the players. "

A key component of the proposed centers would be serving as a training ground for low-income residents and immigrants. "We have to figure out how to engage these communities in the region's economic growth," Morrelly said.

To remain internationally competitive, technology firms need to take advantage of university-based research and lower their own research costs, he added. They can do this by drawing on the full range of workers, from highly skilled, degreed engineers to lower-level technicians and maintenance personnel.

Lower-skilled workers could be trained for specific tasks that firms wouldn't want to tie up an engineer. The rise in home health monitors, for example, will require people who can service the machines, but may not require advanced training, Morrelly said.

LIFT is a not-for-profit economic development organization and the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research-designated Regional Technology Development Center for Long Island. As the result of an independent survey on the impact LIFT has on its clients, the organization received a 24.3 percent increase in state and federal funding this year.