SSTI Digest

Over the past several months, universities, city and state governments, and private companies alike have announced the creation of high-tech incubators that will serve as springboards for developing specialized companies to help grow the regional economy. Following is a sampling of recent incubator news from across the nation.   In September, U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) announced a $50,000 Rural Business Opportunity Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be used toward the creation of a high-technology incubator in Grant County. In partnership with Taylor University’s Center for Research & Innovation, Grant County Economic Growth Council will receive the bulk of the money to develop the Grant County Innovators Network Center, providing space for one anchor tenant and up to 20 incubator clients.   The Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp. is in the development phase for its planned Emerging Venture Center of Innovation. The goal is for the center to become a satellite of Kentucky’s Central Region Innovation and Commercialization Center. The second phase of the plan includes incubator and accelerator…

Frank Sabatine has been appointed to the newly created position of associate vice president of economic development and community engagement at Ball State University.

Martin Donnelly has been named the regional director of the South Central Indiana Small Business Development Corp. Former Region Director Brian Kleber resigned earlier this year to take a job in the private sector.

Announced last week, Ivy Tech Community College will receive a $3.18 million grant for training individuals from a 14-county region in North Central Indiana in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. The grant, a component of the $15 million Indiana Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, will establish the New Pathways to STEM-based Careers program. The New Pathways program will be concentrated into three distinct areas: Emerging workers – For individuals who have not yet entered the workforce, providing educational and site visit opportunities for pre-college and college students. Middle and high school students will be able to utilize dual credit opportunities for high school and college courses, respectively. Existing workers – Geared towards helping individuals change career paths and acquire skill advancement, especially in the manufacturing and industrial technology fields. Both the Lafayette and Kokomo regions with North Central Indiana will serve up to 1,000 people. New programs – Will create new academic programs for emerging and rapidly growing fields,…

William Stephan has been appointed vice president of engagement for Indiana University, a new position aimed at furthing economic development and related outcomes.

David Boncosky will become the director of Indiana Economic Development Corporation's life sciences initiative Aug. 6.

Conexus Indiana, a new initiative focused on the state’s advanced manufacturing and logistics industries, will be led by President and CEO Carol D’Amico, former executive vice president and chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College.

Charles Sparks was named business development director of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.

Indiana University announced that William Stephan will be the university's new vice president of engagement, a newly created position that becomes effective in September.

A new initiative to target and promote Indiana's manufacturing and logistics sector will do so in a similar manner to the 2002 BioCrossroads initiative that aided in transforming the region’s life sciences industry, the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) recently announced.   Conexus Indiana, the new initiative launched by CICP, will address three key priorities: developing a highly-skilled manufacturing workforce; creating industry collaborations to explore new business opportunities; and aggressively marketing Indiana’s manufacturing and logistics strengths to the business community, potential workers and the general public.    CICP anticipates a total budget of $6.5 million through 2009 with a $3 million grant by the Lilly Endowment and additional pledges by leading companies and institutions. The funds will be used to support the following planned and ongoing efforts: Working with higher education and training providers, tailoring programs to create educational opportunities aligned with manufacturing and logistics; Launching an educational career awareness program modeled on the “Dream it…

Complete descriptions of the position openings described below are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm. The Edison Materials Technology Center (EMTEC), a collaborative technology development organization, is seeking an assistant director for the Southwest Central Ohio Procurement Technical Assistance Center (SWCO PTAC). The assistant director is responsible for providing counseling effort to the PTAC office in the Columbus region. Other duties include in-depth, one-to-one client government procurement counseling, conducting training events, preparing reports and budgets for funding agencies, maintaining client counseling records, and networking with various commercial and government agencies, as necessary. A bachelor's degree in science or arts is required. Griffin Analytical Technologies, LLC, a high-tech, high-growth chemical weapons and explosives detection company, has openings for two positions: (1) senior electrical engineer and (2) software engineer. The senior electrical engineer should be able to bring novel ideas to designing and reducing the size of the instrument electronics, using the latest design…

Indiana's General Assembly adjourned for the year last week, after passing a $29 billion budget that included more than $100 million for TBED-related programs.   The budget contributes $20 million to a new Life Sciences Fund that will provide grants of $15 million and $5 million to the Indiana School of Medicine and Purdue University, respectively, for life sciences research. Late last year, Gov. Mitch Daniels had proposed leasing the state's lottery to a private firm in order to generate more than $1 billion for the Life Sciences Fund and undergraduate scholarships (see the Dec. 18, 2006 and Jan. 15, 2007 issues of the SSTI Weekly Digest). That plan would have made more than $400 million available for life sciences research; however, it was not approved by the General Assembly. The approved measure follows on the heels of Purdue University's announcement that it would partner with the Arthur Mann Foundation to establish a $100 million biomedical engineering research center (press release is available here).   The budget provides $70 million over the next biennium to the state's 21st Century Research and Development Fund…