Thursday, September 29, 2005

Jerry Kilgore on Biotechnology


What have the candidates for governor said about biotechnology, tech transfer or state funded research? We will look at the plans from all three candidates for governor over the next few days. We will start today with some information from Jerry Kilgore's campaign plan for technology-related economic development:

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"Virginia is home to businesses and universities that are on the forefront of innovation and cutting-edge research in biotechnology, nanotechnology, wireless innovation, nuclear and particle physics, aerospace, information systems, and many other disciplines. Now is the time to leverage these advances, build upon the successes of the Center for Innovative Technology, and make Virginia the place for the business and higher-ed communities to turn knowledge into the power to create jobs, advance discoveries, and turn experimentation and inventions into reality for our families and our future. As Governor, Jerry Kilgore will:

  • Create a Governor's Research Partnership Fund to attract new businesses willing to partner with universities on research initiatives and co-locate their operations and/or laboratories on or near the university campus;
  • Establish a comprehensive policy in Virginia law to address technology transfer and commercialization of intellectual property through performance grants for private sector research investment, intellectual property ownership, and expanded state support for copyright offices within universities;
  • Leverage the deployment of VORTEX (a broadband fiber-optic network linking Virginia's universities with each other and national and international research networks) to link research driven business ventures with our universities and spread the cyber infrastructure to rural parts of the state so that private sector researchers could be located in Sussex, Danville or Wise and still work side-by-side with their public sector counterparts at any of the doctoral universities;
  • Implement the key recommendations of the Virginia Research and Technology Advisory Commission (VRTAC), including the creation of a defined tax exemption for private investors rather than the current unpredictable tax credit program;
  • Expand the scope of CIT to become the Virginia Advanced Research Alliance
    ­ the focal point and engine that will drive all of these initiatives forward."

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Back in 2003, Kilgore addressed the Virginia Biotechnology Summit. His press release about the event is available here.

If anyone has more information about some of these positions, especially on the "Partnership Fund" and tech transfer issues, please let us know.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"what have the candidates said about ..." candidates is plural but you've only include one candidate - so far. does va bio endorse kilgore for governor? if so, please be explicit about it. in that case, you should be certain your donors understand your role as a political advocacy group, and which party you support. some donors may not agree with your stance and may wish to withdraw funding. if not, you should post similar information about the kaine platform, which is available at http://www.kaine2005.org/issues/economy.php

Mark Herzog said...

No, the association has not endorsed any candidates. The blog articles are meant to be short and I planned to do three different postings based on what I could find online.

Thanks for the comments.