CNHI News Service
— By Randall Turk
Transcript Business Editor
The state’s most productive agency in leveraging Oklahoma dollars for technology that creates companies and jobs wants to step up its efforts.
The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) is urging the legislature to more than double its budget for the next fiscal year.
What has OCAST achieved for the state since the agency was established in 1987? What does it plan to do with a yearly budget that would increase from the current $12.4 million in state appropriations to $25.9 million?
OCAST Executive Director Michael Carolina discussed those and other aspects of the agency at a Tuesday meeting of the Norman Chamber of Commerce Weather Committee.
Supporting basic and applied research, helping researchers transfer their technology to commercial production and providing seed capital for companies created from state research are all aspects of the OCAST mission.
Since its beginning, OCAST has leveraged more than $15 in private and federal funds for every state dollar it received, Carolina said — growing $127.7 million in state appropriations into more than $1.9 billion in private and federal research and development funds.
OCAST’s “pipeline” for developing Oklahoma technology begins with “seed grants” for researchers. The grants trigger federal and private funds for refining the technology and getting it ready to market commercially. Other assistance is available to help small and medium size companies increase productivity to compete in national and international markets. OCAST’s work involves convincing government agencies, businesses and higher education to collaborate, or share ideas. But OCAST can do much more, Carolina said.
“We can only fund about half of the qualified applied research proposals,” he said, “And only a third of the qualified health research proposals are in our pipeline.”
Over the years, OCAST seed grants have stimulated federal grants of $197 million for biomedical research and $38 million for small business research and development contracts. Carolina said 95 percent of Oklahoma businesses funded with Oklahoma Applied Research Support (OARS) grants are still in business.
The Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence, an OCAST division, helps manufacturers make innovations and increase efficiency and standards. The alliance has leveraged more than $97 million in private and federal funds from OCAST outlays of $1.3 million, Carolina said.
To date, OCAST has assisted more than 1,000 companies throughout the state, he said.
He listed the main “technology thrusts” OCAST funds have bolstered in Oklahoma as: advanced materials for engineering projects; agriculture; aerospace technology; biosciences; energy; information technology, and research forsensor-related programs and weather forecasting.
Carolina said of the additional $13.5 million OCAST budget request for fiscal year 2007, $8.5 million would enhance existing programs and $5 million would be set aside for seed capital funding to create successful businesses from new technology.
“In 1988, voters overwhelmingly amended the Oklahoma Constitution to authorize a seed capital fund,” Carolina said. “The legislature has never funded it.”
Seed capital is a pool of money set aside to help companies with such tasks as completing prototype products that can be developed further with outside venture capital. “Investment in Oklahoma research will be lost if startup companies are forced to go out of state for seed capital,” Carolina said.
Randall Turk
366-3547
rturk@normantranscript.com
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