News Releases for September 2007
September 28, 2007
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Hoeven Announces Fourth Round Of Centers Of Excellence Awards
BISMARCK, N.D. – Gov. John Hoeven today announced that the Centers of Excellence Commission has approved six new jobs creation and economic development projects in the fourth round of awards. If the projects agreed to by the Commission today are authorized by the Legislative Budget Section and Emergency Commission, total funding for Centers of Excellence projects will be $10 million, with matches of up to $37 million.
“The projects demonstrate how our North Dakota universities are skillfully combining education and economic development to create higher paying jobs and new business opportunities in our state,” Hoeven said. “The quality and diversity of the projects reviewed, reflects the level of leadership and innovation at work on our campuses and in our business communities.”
The Centers of Excellence projects for approval are:
- Minot State University – Great Plains Knowledge and Data Center
Amount Recommended: $2,100,000
Amount of Match: up to $11,150,000
Proposed Private Sector Partners: InfoTech – Minot Technology Center and SRT Communications, Inc.
Proposed Job Creation: 30-45 per year each of the initial 5 years
Center Designation: Commercialization
Summary: The Great Plains Knowledge and Data Center will promote the development and advancement of knowledge-based business in the region. The Center will include two key facilities, a production data center and a research and development center (R&D), which will support current and new knowledge-based business ventures through three central functions: technology operations, business development, and data center R&D. - NDSU – Center of Excellence for Agbiotechnology: Oilseed Development II
Amount Recommended: $1,500,000
Amount of Match: up to $5,580,000
Proposed Private Sector Partners: Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland
Proposed Job Creation: 160 direct jobs, which supports 1,639 indirect jobs
Center Designation: Commercialization
Summary: This COE will improve canola to meet the growing demand for bio-fuels, and to evaluate the commercial use of these products for other end-product uses. This project will expand the current COE by developing drought tolerant and reduced shattering lines of Brassica napus, the traditional canola species, and Brassica juncea, a crop with similar oil properties as canola, that are adapted to acres south and west of the traditional canola growing region. - North Dakota State University - Surface Protection
Amount Recommended: $2,000,000
Amount of Match: up to $6,025,904
Proposed Private Sector Partners: Praxair Surface Technologies, Technology Application Group, Sulzer Metco, Marvin Windows & Doors, and Akzo Nobel
Proposed Job Creation: approximately 35-40
Center Designation: Commercialization
Summary: The Center for Surface Protection works with private sector partners to address new materials development, industrial product issues, and provides technical services in the form off testing. The two current focus areas of the CSP are hard coatings and soft coatings. The new coatings systems being proposed will demonstrate improved corrosion, erosion, and wear properties relative to the current state-of-the-art coatings systems. - UND – Center of Excellence for Biomedical Device Research, Development &
Commercialization
Amount Recommended: $2,500,000
Amount of Match: up to $6,625,000
Proposed Private Sector Partners: Enova Medical Technologies
Proposed Job Creation: 6 immediately, ramping to 100 in 2 years and 500+ in 5 years
Center Designation: Commercialization
Summary: The development and manufacture of biomedical devices represents a high value, low volume industry that is well suited to North Dakota and its economic development goals. The initial activities will focus on Enova Medical Technologies’ existing exclusive license on an issued patent relating to clot removal in blood vessels. The mission of the proposed Center will be to serve the state by providing a research, development, and commercialization resource for a range of biomedical devices. Over time the Center will conduct multiple, concurrent projects for various biomedical companies and cities, thus providing the potential for economic development throughout the state and region. - UND – Unmanned Aircraft System Center of Excellence for Economic Development
Amount Recommended: $1,500,000
Amount of Match: up to $7,000,000
Proposed Private Sector Partners: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, AAI, Cirrus Design, SEO Precision, Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing
Proposed Job Creation: 75 private sector jobs
Center Designation: Infrastructure and Commercialization
Summary: The UAS Center of Excellence focus areas are 1) education and training development for the integration of UASs into the civilian aviation industry; 2) human factors flight performance research for UAS pilots and UAS ground station cockpit environments; and 3) research and development on UAS payload sensors for civilian and environmental scientific applications. The work of this COE will further promote the commercialization of new products (e.g. UAS sensor payloads), the test and evaluation of new civil UAS systems and services (e.g. UAS flight education), as well as promote private sector job growth within Grand Forks and through the state of North Dakota. - Lake Region State College – The Dakota Center for Technology-Optimized Agriculture (DCTOA) –
Fusing Technology to Agronomic Needs of North Dakota Livestock Growers
Amount Recommended: $400,000
Amount of Match: up to $843,400
Proposed Private Sector Partners: Agri ImaGIS Technologies, Inc.; Agvise Laboratories; Airborne Data Systems, Inc.; Farmers Edge Precision Consulting, Inc.; Packet Digital, Inc.; Verdi-Plus
Proposed Job Creation: 26
Center Designation: Commercialization
Summary: This proposed 3-year initiative expands the program of the Dakota Center for Technology-Optimized Agriculture by addressing the need to harness emerging data-based site-specific control technologies to agronomic knowledge of soil profiles, crop need, and use of manure nutrients. This initiative proposes to couple site-specific data and controllers to towed-hose manure slurry application tools, thereby precisely placing manure in soil zones with the most productive capacity, and retarding application where soil is unfit for normal production or within areas which constitute buffers, watersheds, set-asides, or other fragile acreages.
The Centers of Excellence Commission is comprised of members from the State Board of Higher Education and the Economic Development Foundation. Representing the State Board of Higher Education are Duaine Espegard of Grand Forks, Pamela Kostelecky of Dickinson, and John Q. Paulsen of Fargo. Representing the Economic Development Foundation are Tim Hennessy of U.S. Bank in Bismarck, Kathy Gaddie of Ryan Chevrolet in Minot, and Mark Nisbet North Dakota principal manager for Xcel Energy in Fargo, and chairman.
In 2002, Hoeven initiated the Centers of Excellence concept and worked with legislators to fund the earliest projects in the 2003 session. A Center of Excellence for Economic Development is a hub of research and development on one the campuses of the North Dakota University System around which related businesses expand and dynamic new businesses cluster, creating jobs and opportunities for North Dakota citizens.
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