Funding

Funding
by Michael Orshan

One of the really frustrating things about the Iraq War is the sad effect of funding Science and Technology. There are so many articles on this phenomenon I’ll spare the tears of “where’s my money?” Sure the war drained what money there was, but maybe the system of science and technology failed to.

Now I’ve seen many universities start programs on entrepreneurship. There are great tech transfers now, even though many of these lose money, they create community togetherness and organization focus. These are all steps in the right direction.

One of the best examples on how to move forward is the city of Phoenix and the University of Arizona. For whatever reason they put a stake in the ground and claimed the biotech was their future. They created T/Gen a facility for biotech research, tech transfer and company building. Then the University created a great biotech facility and began to coordinate their efforts with T/Gen. Now they are building, actually past building, a remarkable cluster in biotech. Now city services, growth, employment, resources are all focused in the same direction. I predict that funding to this will always be there, because the media, politics, planning and everything are focused.

Here is what I want to point out. I believe that economic success occurs when scientists, entrepreneurs, politics and capital work together. This is perfect example. This Phoenix project spanned multiple governor administrations, mayor administrations and so forth. Yet, the political process was smart enough to share in the success and let that success drive their own campaigns from election year to election year.

Personally, I’d like to see public funding, at the University level, be focused on the economic goals of the region. This forces the entire region to decide on that focus, get behind this and drive success forward.