2015-2016 Annual Report
Annual Report
Growing High Tech Industry Through a unique partnership with dozens of economic development , workforce , academic and industry partners , the Florida High Tech Corridor Council has supported the growth of high tech industry throughout the 23-county region for more than 20 years .
Grants Research Program ( MGRP ), which helps leverage research and development budgets of industry partners .
MGRP projects further the development of innovative technologies , including a treatment for rare metabolic disorders , a microsatellite for enhanced realtime observations of any location on Earth and an air purifier that eliminates pollutants using ultraviolet light .
A regional economic development initiative of three research universities – the University of Central Florida ( UCF ), the University of South Florida ( USF ) and the University of Florida ( UF ) – The Corridor has continued to receive national recognition for its efforts to build a region where technology and innovation thrive .
The following overview provides details about the initiatives and programs that helped The Corridor grow high tech industry and the workforce to support it in 2015 / 2016 .
Matching Grants Research Program The key focus of The Corridor has been to foster applied research partnerships between high tech industry leaders and our three Corridor universities . Every year , technology companies bring their commercial challenges to our expert faculty to take advantage of The Corridor ’ s Matching
During 2015 / 2016 , the program generated 54 projects in partnership with 46 Corridor companies , including 23 companies participating in the MGRP for the first time . The Corridor invested $ 3.5 million in the projects , while the participating companies matched that investment with $ 8.1 million in cash , in-kind services and equipment . The total value of research conducted through the Matching Grants Research Program therefore reached $ 11.6 million this year .
Since the inception of the program in 1996 , The Corridor has partnered with more than 360 companies on more than 1,400 research projects in sectors ranging from Agritechnology to Sustainable Energy . The more than $ 65 million in funds that have been invested by The Corridor have been matched by corporate cash and in-kind investments of $ 182 million , generating an additional $ 900 million in quantifiable downstream impacts , resulting in a total project value of more than $ 1 billion .
MGRP counts among its successes the opportunity to engage talented student researchers who learn from faculty mentors as they solve real-world challenges . During 2015 / 2016 , more than 130 student researchers and 56 faculty members from our research universities were engaged in conducting applied research on Corridor projects . That brings the total number of students ( 2,946 ) and faculty ( 398 ) who have conducted research on a matching grants project since inception to more than 3,300 .
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