This award is to Cornell University to support the activity described below for 36 months. The proposal was submitted in response to the Partnerships for Innovation Program Solicitation (NSF-04556).
Partners The partners include Cornell University (Lead Institution); New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, NY; Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park Corporation, Geneva, NY; Infotonics Center for Technology, Canandaigua, NY; Finger Lakes Workforce Investment Board, Geneva, NY; and Ontario County Office of Economic Development, Canandaigua, NY. In addition, the collaborating institutions include Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY; Metropolitan Development Agency of Central New York, Syracuse, NY; Finger Lakes Institute; Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY; Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY; The Trillium Group, LLC, Penfield, NY; High Tech Rochester, Rochester, NY; New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, Albany, NY; NY Agri Development Corp., Syracuse, NY; Cornell Cooperative Extension, Canandaigua, NY; BirdsEye Foods; Constellation Wines US; CY Farms; Red Jacket Orchards;and Wegmans.
The primary objective of the proposal follows. The Finger Lakes Region of New York State, bounded by Syracuse to the east, Rochester to the west, and Ithaca to the south, is ready to emerge from its lagging economic development by exploiting the intellectual power resident in its many institutions of higher education and the strong desire to keep innovations arising from these institutions within the region. This is technology-based economic development. This proposal addresses the need by making a unique blend of disparate technologies that rarely meet, but have great potential to generate innovation when they do. The first set of technologies are agriculture and food, and is embodied in the translational research carried out by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station which supports a wide range of research for the horticulture and food industries in New York State. The second technology set consists of photonics, microsystems and imaging, embodied by the industry-initiated Center of Infotonics Technology, a New York State Center for Excellence. Such a fusion will create innovation.
Potential Economic Impact
The proposed effort will create the support systems that insure this innovation will find a home within the region to anchor, be nurtured, and grow. This support consists of business and legal services for start-up businesses, capital funding sources for new ventures, commercialization support for new technologies, a well-prepared workforce to support the innovations, and a well-educated community that will welcome the businesses producing the innovations. Because there is region-wide excitement about technology-based economic development, with the creation of initial successes expected from this grant, the region will embrace sustained activity in technology fusion. The investigators will share our successful approach with other regions that want to replicate the success.
The intellectual merit of the project follows. This is a novel proposal to address the need for cross-institutional, cross-disciplinary research, fusing disparate technology areas to create innovation. It is a very aggressive partnership that is unified by the overall goal of community education and economic diversification.
The broader impacts of the activity follow. The impacts of this project are extensive -- covering rural populations, citizens (an oft neglected constituency!), high school teachers and administrators, community colleges, higher education, economic development organizations and all parts of the private sector. This proposal has the potential to affect a large physical area, large population and diverse population with an innovate approach to knowledge and technology fusion -- interdisciplinary work harnessed to create economic diversification opportunities.
