Monday, March 3, 2008

How We See It

States' deals drive R&D to the market

A pair of New England states have entered into separate partnerships intended to drive economic growth -- and while it's a shame that such inventiveness happens so rarely between legislators and businesspeople that any instance becomes laudable, we nonetheless recognize such efforts in the hopes of seeing more of them.

In the Ocean State, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp., the quasi-public agency charged with boosting Rhode Island's economic well-being, has inked deals with private lenders to bring an extra $30 million from a new fund to invest in growing high-wage -- read "high-tech" -- jobs in Rhode Island. (The deals is similar to a program launched in 2005 by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association.)

And in the Bay State, Jack Wilson, the president of the University of Massachusetts, this week penned a deal with Ian Bowles, the head of the Dept. of Energy and Environmental Affairs, to support education and research in clean energy, an area that already has resulted in a number of successful spinouts from the UMass system. While no funds have been committed, the partnership puts the state's university system in a strong position to create more companies like Konarka Technologies Inc. of Lowell or SunEthanol Inc. of Amherst.

Creative partnerships such as these are necessary in helping drive R&D to commercialization, and officials in both states deserve kudos for being willing to consider new ways to drive growth.