Approximately one month ago, Cleveland Cavaliers forward and the NBA’s most prominent superstar Lebron James announced that he was leaving his hometown team to play for the Miami Heat. In the most media-saturated free agency deal in recent memory, teams offered the 6-9 wunderkind everything from coaching selection to cash, and even rebuilt their rosters to fit James’ talents. In the end, James chose the Miami Heat, who sold so many season tickets in the first two weeks following the announcement, the front office fired the sales staff. In Cleveland, the bustling nightlife economy, which had sprung up around downtown Cleveland is now expected to see steep declines.
In the world of high-caliber acquisitions, a good incentive package can mean the difference between prosperity and bankruptcy. Pennsylvania may not have much of a basketball economy but, with over 150 colleges and universities, the higher education sector is one of the largest in the nation. That’s why the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority, an initiative of the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development, announced $2.5 million in incentive grants this week, in the hopes of attracting several figures of James-like proportions to lead the burgeoning nanotechnology and energy sectors into the next decade.
“These grants will help universities put attractive packages together to bring productive professors to their institutions and once they are here in Pennsylvania, we should see greater research, more disclosures and more commercialization at the end,” says DCED University Liaison and Nanotech Program Manager Tom Armstrong. “There’s been academic research out there that says that, where you have this productive faculty and their research teams, usually about 25 miles from them, you tend to get early stage production.”
Just as teams adjusted rosters and coaching decisions to attract James to their city, the DCED starter kit grants will allow centers of higher education $1 million to develop labs, staff and equipment in order to draw private research funding and display a commitment to future faculty. 10 faculty researchers will be recruited to Pennsylvania colleges and universities to design curriculum and develop new products for the nanotechnology and energy sectors, which the DCED believes are primed to see rapid growth.
An additional $1.5 million in Innovation Grants will help 17 academic medical institutions, non-profit research institutions, and universities increase technology transfer from their institutions to the marketplace. But for anyone interested in nanotechnology or energy, the decision has to go beyond the incentives. These sectors are already on the rise in PA and, the DCED believes that these incentives will attract real players who will see the game through to the end.
“A number of these professors will come with radical innovation that they will look to push all the way through to new start-up firms and of course, we would love to have them here in Pennsylvania,” says Armstrong.
Source: Tom Armstrong, PA DCED
Writer: John Steele