ASTA Executive Committee Releases Funds For Research Alliance

Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008

The Arkansas Science & Technology Authority’s Executive Committee met on Tuesday to approve two major decisions that will affect the future of Arkansas.

The Executive Committee approved a tax credit to Authority client Vegrandis LLC. The decision qualifies Vegrandis for involvement in the National Science Foundation’s Phase IIB Option program. This program entitles Vegrandis to matching federal funds equal to 50% on the value of the sale price of the tax credit.

This is only the latest in a series of successful grant acquisitions for the Fayetteville-based company that has obtained numerous Phase I and Phase II SBIR grants supporting its development of Lab-on-a-chip technology. The benefit to the people of Arkansas is evident: a small hi-tech company bringing more federal dollars into the state, ultimately boosting the economy and stimulating job growth.

The Board also released funds totaling $250,000 to establish the Arkansas Research Alliance.

The Alliance, modeled after the successful Georgia Research Alliance (which has been instrumental in transforming that states knowledge-based economy), will include a CEO/President and a Board of Trustees comprised of five chancellors of research universities and ten CEOs from the top companies in the state.

The objectives of the Alliance are ambitious. They include a focus on recruitment of scholars to our state, identifying job creation research, leveraging state and private funds in conjunction with legislative support for research, improving cooperation and collaboration among state research universities and increasing the flow of Federal research dollars into Arkansas.

The next meeting of the Authority’s Board of Directors is Friday, March 21st.