Establishes the strategic partnership for industrial resurgence program

2 Co-sponsors

• Martin Malavé Dilan
• John L. Sampson

BILL NUMBER:S1722

Title of bill

An act to amend the education law, in relation to establishing the strategic partnership for industrial resurgence program

Purpose or general idea of bill

To codify in statute the Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR), an engineering technical outreach and service program providing assistance to small businesses. The non-statutory program was established in 1994 and is funded and administered through the State University of New York.

Summary of specific provisions

The State University of New York Chancellor would allocate available funds for a SPIR program at the engineering schools at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook State Universities. Funding will allow the schools to provide technical assistance to small and medium sized companies in New York.

Projects must have well-defined deliverables, timeframes and support the goals of student education and professional development as determined by the Dean of the Engineering School or an equivalent faculty member.

Any New York state technology-based or technology-dependent company in the manufacturing, product development, information technology or service sector with fewer than 250 employees is eligible for assistance from SPIR. Companies must provide at least a 50E6 match. Allowable expenses include compensation and tuition and travel expenses of graduate and undergraduate students working on the project. SPIR may also Provide technical assistance to companies developing proposals for federal grants.

Justification

The Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR) program fills a gap in existing State industrial assistance programs by providing technically advanced multidisciplinary assistance on a fast turnaround basis through utilizing the extensive engineering resources of the SUNY system. The SPIR program was modeled on the successful agricultural extension service model. New York's "Engineering Extension Service" model is unique and could be a model adopted nationwide.

Over the past ten years, the SPIR program has worked with over 1,000 New York companies on almost 5,000 individual projects. It is estimated that the Program's advanced technical assistance has led to the creation/retention of tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in increased sales. This bill would codify the SPIR program in statute.

Prior legislative history

This is a new bill.

Fiscal implications

Subject to available funds.

Effective date

Immediately.