[Press Release] Gov. Perry Touts Public-Private Aerospace Collaboration to save Texas Talent

Gov. Perry Touts Public-Private Aerospace Collaboration to save Texas Talent

Gov. Rick Perry today praised the creation of a public-private partnership that will harness the Texas based talent, creativity and resources at Houston’s NASA Johnson Space Center into innovative technologies with groundbreaking implications for our daily lives. This partnership will play an integral role in keeping some of our nation’s brightest minds in Texas, and preserving jobs that might otherwise be lost as a result of the ending of the constellation program. Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade announced the initiative at the Texas Governor’s Small Business Forum: Aerospace Collaboration Opportunities event held at the JSC.

“Over the years, JSC and its private partners have developed a coveted pool of some of the most creative minds in engineering and space exploration in the world,” Gov. Perry said. “These men and women, and the groundbreaking technology they have developed, are important resources for the Houston area and our state. We want to keep them here, and the opportunities created by this partnership will help link these men and women with innovative companies that can bring more technologies to market.”

The state is awarding $500,000 to BayTech, a nonprofit advanced technology business consortium, to fund the Texas Innovation Program, which will help link highly trained aerospace workers with private sector partners to create new companies, expand existing companies, add jobs and keep working talent in Texas.

“The Texas Innovation Program will work to capitalize on Texas’ talented workers to meet research and development demands, and will help some of the 3,000 workers transition their skills into creating new companies and products,” Secretary Andrade said. “Entrepreneurs will be able to capitalize on JSC facilities and equipment to develop and commercialize new technologies.”

Additionally, the state is awarding $250,000 from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF) to the Houston Technology Center to create a Regional Center for Innovation and Commercialization (RCIC) at JSC to provide resources to the scientific entrepreneurial community in the Bay Area. Like others in the state, this RCIC will review and recommend projects to

You can read the rest of this article at: http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/16962/

Posted by TexasReportAdmin on February 17, 2012. Filed under Governor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry