Russell W. Bessette, M.D., Executive Director of the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR), today announced awards totaling $9.2 million annually for its Regional Technology Development Center (RTDC) program — an initiative designed to help the State’s small and medium-sized manufacturing and technology-based businesses be more successful in the new economy.

“Since its inception, the RTDC initiative has provided special services to a range of businesses from new technology-based start-ups in need of basic business advice to mature manufacturing organizations in need of new technologies and methods to modernize their operations,” Dr. Bessette said. “This program has helped both small and medium-sized manufacturing and technology-based businesses become more competitive as well as to help build the State’s high-technology economy.”

NYSTAR officially designates RTDCs in all 10 of the State’s economic development regions. The RTDC program is an integrated service delivery program that draws on three related programs: the State Technology Development Organization program, the State Industrial Technology Extension Service program, and the Federal Manufacturing Extension Partnership program. RTDCs currently provide services in each of the 10 regions, and these awards are designed to further strengthen the program.

Through the RTDC program, NYSTAR provides funds to support a statewide network of regional, non-profit organizations whose mission is to provide basic and specialty services to small and medium-sized manufacturers, science and technology-based businesses and start-ups in need of basic business advice and new technologies and methods to modernize their operations. The total credited economic impact of the RTDC program for the 5-year period ending in 2005 is $1.56 billion. As a result of the RTDC program, 10,583 jobs have been created and retained in New York State.

\The objectives of the RTDC program are to improve the competitiveness and increase the market share of small- and medium-sized businesses in New York through the introduction of new technology and best practices (including management, quality and productivity improvements); create and retain jobs in New York; increase investment in and investment by New York manufacturing and technology-based companies; facilitate the movement of technology discoveries from academic research centers into creation of new companies or the expansion of existing New York State companies; and increase the economic benefits to New York State companies and the State resulting from SBIR-funded technology research and commercialization.

With these awards, NYSTAR designates these organizations as the New York State RTDC for their respective regions for a five year period.

The RTDC designees are as follows:

Alliance for Manufacturing and Technology (AM&T) of Binghamton, responsible for the Southern Tier (Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, and Tompkins counties), awarded $788,000;

Center for Economic Growth (CEG) of Albany, responsible for the Capital Region (Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, and Warren, and Washington counties), awarded $750,000;

Central New York Technology Development Organization (CNYTDO) of Syracuse, responsible for Central New York (Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, and Oswego counties), awarded $640,000;

Council for International Trade, Technology, Education and Communication (CITEC) of Potsdam, responsible for the North Country region (Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties), awarded $521,000;

High Technology of Rochester (HTR), responsible for the Finger Lakes region (Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates counties), awarded $904,000;

Hudson Valley Technology Development Center (HVTDC) of Fishkill, responsible for the Mid-Hudson region (Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester counties), awarded $786,000;

Industrial and Technology Assistance Center (ITAC) of New York City, responsible for the New York City area (Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, and Richmond counties), awarded $2,195,000;

Insyte Consulting of Amherst, responsible for Western New York (Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, and Niagara counties), awarded $973,000.

Long Island Forum for Technology (LIFT) of Bay Shore, responsible for Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk counties), awarded $1,084,000; and

Mohawk Valley Applied Technology Corporation (MVATC) of Utica, responsible for the Mohawk Valley region (Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida, and Schoharie counties), awarded $559,000.

Each RTDC received a base award of $300,000, plus an additional allocation based on the percentage of manufacturing and research and development individuals employed at small and medium manufacturing firms in the region and the region’s total credited economic impact over a three-year period as a percentage of the rolling total statewide impact over the same period.

Governor Pataki and the Legislature have advanced several major initiatives to expand high technology and biotechnology business and job-creation opportunities in New York. The Governor's Centers of Excellence initiative, along with Strategically Targeted Academic Research Centers and Advanced Research Centers, focus on critical emerging technologies that are expected to become major high-tech growth areas. Each Center is designed to complement other specialized academic centers in a seamless network of high-tech research and economic development.

Since 1995, the State has fostered the growth of New York's high-tech and biotech industries by supporting the investment of more than $1 billion in the State's technology business sector and its world-class research laboratories and academic centers.