Authority Board Votes to Support Internet TV, Teacher Empowerment and 3 New Centers
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The Arkansas Science & Technology Authority Board showed its support for an Arkansas based Internet TV Station, STEM Teacher Empowerment grants and more in its third meeting of 2008.
Focusing on manufacturing and industry, the Board voted to approve allocation of seven partnership agreements with Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions. The agreements would allow for field staff positions at the Genesis Technology Incubator, The Delta Center for Economic Development, Southern Arkansas University Tech, plus a directors position and field staff positions at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Positions were approved at Winrock International, as were sponsorships for the Arkansas Institute for Performance Excellence, and a manufacturing conference conducted by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
Tax credits were awarded to 10 Arkansas companies: BioBased Insulations, BioDetection Instruments, BlueInGreen, LLC, Insight Ecosystems, LLC, Invotek, Inc, NanoMech, LLC, Nanomaterial and Nanofabrication Laboratories, Ocean NanoTech, LLC, SFC Fluidics, LLC, and Lynguent, Inc. The total amount of these tax credits equals $832,554.60.
A Seed Capital investment was awarded to Station X, LLC for $20,000. The funding will be utilized by this revolutionary start-up company to support productions of an Internet TV network.
In the area of research, the Board approved funding of EPSCoR Seed Grants to the Bioproduction Project on the campuses of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Arkansas State University.
And in a continued effort to support educational initiatives, the Board approved funding of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Teacher Empowerment proposals submitted by multiple institutions. The recipients included the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the EAST Initiative, the University of Central Arkansas, Arkansas State University, Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, Henderson State University, Rich Mountain Community College, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the DeQueen Mena Educational Cooperative, Southern Arkansas University, Southeast Educational Cooperative and Bryant High School
In addition, the Board approved new internship positions for the NSC EPSCoR Program and a STEM Internship position for the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation SMART Grant Program.
In a final decision, the Board voted to release funds to establish three new Centers For Applied Technology. Funded by over three million dollars from the Governor’s Discretionary Fund, the centers will include the Cyberinfrastructure Center of Arkansas and the Arkansas Institute for Nanoscale Science and Engineering to be housed on the campus of the Unviersity of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The UALR Nanotechnology Center will be housed on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
The next Board meeting will be September 19th, 2008.
