As part of the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council (LIREDC), Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD, joined other LIREDC representatives on November 2 in Albany as the group made its annual presentation of priority project proposals to the State Implementation Assessment Team (SIAT). It is SIAT’s job to review the ten Regional Councils’ annual progress reports and proposals as each council competes for state funding.
In addition to President Stanley, LIREDC was represented at the hearing by Council Co-Vice Chair Kevin Law, President of the Long Island Association; Patricia Edwards, Vice President for Community Development, Citigroup; and Marianne Garvin, CEO, Community Development Corporation of Long Island, along with Peter Cavallaro, Mayor of Westbury, and Cara Longworth, Long Island Regional Director, Empire State Development. The group presented highlights from its 2016 Strategic Plan to the seven-member SIAT judging panel as LIREDC vies for up to $750 million in state business aid.
In the five years since Governor Andrew Cuomo established the Regional Councils, LIREDC won four “top competitor” awards, bringing to Long Island $425 million in state funds for 470 diverse initiatives, including $109 million for 141 transformative “priority projects,” all of which leveraged nearly $1.8 billion in private investment.
Following are some of the projects at Stony Brook University that are included in the 2016 LIREDC Strategic Plan:
- eMINDSET will stimulate local economic development by producing engineering graduates with an entrepreneurial mindset. Enhanced experiential learning and academic success initiatives will increase graduation rates and expand inclusiveness in technological innovation.
- The Preclinical Screening Center will advance the University’s capacity for medical research and the region’s commitment to encouraging cutting-edge discovery.
- Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Lab partnered in a joint High Performance Computing project to upgrade computer equipment to strengthen advanced manufacturing in the region.
- Stony Brook is home to the new Long Island Regional MEP Center, the Manufacturing and Technology Resource Consortium, to improve the skill sets and knowledge of entrepreneurs, researchers and other employees.
- The University provides training for emerging biotechnology companies through programs at the Stony Brook Regional Small Business Development Center and the University’s annual Innovation Boot Camp, an intensive series of workshops and homework assignments for up-and-coming startups.
- The Clean Energy Business Incubator Program at Stony Brook is providing valuable assistance and resources to developers of disruptive renewable and clean energy technologies.
- Stony Brook Medicine and Mount Sinai Health System entered into an affiliation agreement aimed at heightening research collaboration and enhancing academic programs and clinical care initiatives.
- The NYS Center for Clean Water Technology at Stony Brook will accelerate the pace of innovation within the onsite wastewater treatment sector, a strategy that is designed to deliver increasingly cost-effective technologies that are more suitable for widespread deployment.
- At Stony Brook’s Center for Biotechnology, several clients announced major fundraising rounds: Rgenix, a cancer therapeutics company, announced a $33 million Series B financing; TheraSource LLC received a $3 million Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health; Traverse Biosciences received an additional $1.32M in NIH funding to study the pre-clinical safety and effectiveness of its dental pharma product; iCell Gene Therapeutics announced that the FDA granted Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma; and Codagenix announced that it was awarded a USDA grant to begin development of an influenza vaccine.
Click here to view the full LIREDC Strategic Plan for 2016.
About NY’s Regional Councils
The Regional Economic Development Council initiative is a key component of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s transformative approach to state investment and economic development. In 2011, Governor Cuomo established 10 Regional Councils, of which LIREDC is one, to develop long-term strategic plans for economic growth for their regions. The Councils are public-private partnerships made up of local experts and stakeholders from business, academia, local government and non-governmental organizations.
The Regional Councils have redefined the way New York invests in jobs and economic growth by putting in place a community-based, bottom-up approach and establishing a competitive process for State resources.
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