An important achievement said USF President Dr. Judy Genshaft was the
“We have the scale and the scope of
creation of an incubator for students on her campus. “That is so important
what we want to accomplish,” said
because so many of the discoveries are made when you are willing to take
Dr. Fuchs. “We’re number three in
lots of risk and you’re willing to really dream big. That’s really a very exciting
part of what we do to help develop the whole enterprise of discovery and
commercialization.”
population as a state and we deserve
to be number three in the tech sector.
When other states think of us, I want them
She said commercialization is so important to the academic
to think that Florida and our universities
enterprise and its role in economic development that it has been
need to be the model for the nation.”
added to the list of things by which faculty can achieve growth
and promotion. “I want to applaud The Corridor because I think
it has been a remarkable invention and discovery itself, and it has
been so valuable not only to each of the universities, but to private
industry and all of our communities… and at 30 years I see great
things.”
Reinforcing Jennings’ focus on workforce,
Dr. Hitt said, “I think in the future we’re
going to see an exaggeration of a trend
that’s already started. And that is that
rather than a workforce following jobs,
companies now are following workforce.
New UF President Kent Fuchs came to Gainesville from Cornell
You see it really strongly in a lot of high
University in New York where he led establishment of a technology
tech economies.”
campus in Manhattan 200+ miles from the main campus in
partnership with city government. “I’m real pleased to be the
newcomer on the block and to benefit from the work that Gov.
Jennings and others here have done, and to be a partner with all
of you who are focused on economic development.”
He pointed to The Corridor’s Matching Grants Research Program as
something that “leverages what we are already doing, creates a tie to an
application and a company, and gives students a focus to the application
of what they are studying.
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s p ec ia l se c tio n
Reminding the FEDC of the old bromide of the
rising tide that lifts all boats, he said, “Folks, if we
can work together on this project we can be
that rising tide.”