$95M California Research and Innovation Initiative Would Target Green Energy, Biotech and Nanotech Jobs

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced that his proposed budget for 2007-08 will include a $95 million initiative to support new and existing facilities for high-tech research. The California Research and Innovation Initiative would provide funding to several university-based projects around the state hosting clean energy, biotechnology, and nanotechnology research and commercialization activities. Gov. Schwarzenegger explained that his initiative would build upon the state’s academic resources and large pool of scientists and engineers to ensure California’s continued leadership in high-tech innovation.

 

Under the governor’s proposal, the Helios Project, a sustainable energy research initiative at the University of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, would receive $30 million in lease revenue bonds to construct a new energy/nanotechnology research facility. The facility would host cooperative research between researchers at academic institutions across the country to incorporate recent advances in synthetic biology and nanomaterials into developing effective and affordable energy alternatives. Helios researchers intend to develop and commercialize new super-efficient photovoltaic cells that could significantly boost the solar energy industry in California, as well as reduce the state’s dependence on hydrocarbon fuels.

 

The governor’s initiative also would support sustainable energy through a new Energy Biosciences Institute at either the University of California campus at Berkeley or San Diego. Both universities are currently among the five global campuses competing for a $500 million British Petroleum (BP) Energy BioSciences Institute grant that would fund facilities and operations for an alternative fuels research center. In the event that one of the California universities receives the BP grant, Gov. Schwarzenegger plans to expand the state’s alternative energy strategy to include $40 million in lease revenue bonds for cleaner fossil fuel production and biomass research at the new institute. The budget also would provide $5 million in matching funds to aid UC San Diego and the state’s federal laboratories’ bid to build a $200 million Petascale computer, with support from the National Science Foundation.

 

California’s Institutes for Science and Innovation (CISI) would receive $19.8 million under the new initiative to continue operation. Since the program’s creation in 2000, the four CISI institutes have sponsored multidisciplinary research in biomedicine, nanotechnology and information technology at nine state universities. The general fund allocation would allow the institutes to continue to support university commercialization and attract additional private and federal funding.

 

Additional details will be available in the governor’s budget, expected for release today.

 

Read Gov. Schwarzenegger’s press release at: http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/press-release/5004/