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Rhode Island Plan Targets Innovation
Like many low-population states that cannot benefit from tax revenues from oil and gas exploitation such as Wyoming and Alaska, Rhode Island must leverage its existing university and industry research capabilities more fully and encourage more private investment activity, according to the five initial recommendations of the Rhode Island Science & Technology Advisory Council (STAC).
The council, created by Gov. Don Carcieri in April 2005, is comprised of leaders from the business, academic and government sectors of the state's economy. The group's first recommendation is to encourage greater collaboration in more focused or concentrated methods through the creation of a Rhode Island Collaborative Research Alliance.
Using the model of the widely respected Georgia Research Alliance, STAC recommends the state invest $1.5 million as match for a $6.75 million federal award from the National Science Foundation's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).
Coupled with the Rhode Island alliance would be the appointment of a commission to propose strategies for improving the research and innovation capacity of the University of Rhode Island.
To spur innovation and entrepreneurship, STAC proposes creating a Science and Technology Entrepreneur Tax Credit based on the structure of the Rhode Island's one-year old Motion Picture Tax Credit, which rewards film-industry investments in the state that lead to job creation and new local business spending.
Another recommendation calls for the state to invest $500,000 toward the development of the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks project, which has a goal of creating a border-to-border broadband wireless network serving the entire state. The initiative currently is proceeding without any state funding (see the May 16, 2005 issue of the Digest).
Recognizing the continuing need for a public-private group to oversee the state's follow-through on STAC's first four recommendations, the final suggestion in Innovate RI calls for the state to provide $200,000 to sustain the council into fiscal year 2007.
Innovate RI is available at: http://www.riedc.com/riedc/blue_sky/
Links to this paper and more than 3,000 additional TBED-related research reports, strategic plans and other papers can be found at the Tech-based Economic Development (TBED) Resource Center, jointly developed by the Technology Administration and SSTI, at http://www.tbedresourcecenter.org/.