ONAMI Wins Prestigious National Award
October 29, 2012
ATLANTA, GA – Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) was one of six organizations named winners of SSTI’s 2012 Excellence in TBED award, serving as national models for states and regions investing in science, technology and innovation to grow their economies and create high-paying jobs.
“These organizations are helping to lead our nation’s economic recovery and their successes further substantiate the value of tech-based initiatives for regional economic growth,” said Dan Berglund, SSTI President and CEO.
“The SSTI awards are the gold standard in the field of tech-based economic development,” said ONAMI President Skip Rung. “It is a tremendous honor for the first of Oregon Innovation Council’s pioneering efforts in public-private partnerships to be recognized at this level.”
“Collaboration and meaningful partnerships proved to be an essential component for success among this year’s award winners,” Berglund noted. “Our current and past winners each have demonstrated economic growth strategies that are replicable and producing tangible results worthy of emulation for those involved in improving the nation’s competitiveness.”
Over the past six years SSTI has recognized 32 initiatives for their successful efforts to support the creation and growth of technology companies.
Awards were presented today during SSTI’s 16th Annual Conference in Atlanta, attended by more than 250 local, regional and national leaders in economic development from more than 40 states. The following initiatives were named 2012 recipients of SSTI’s Excellence in TBED award:
ONAMI won the 2012 award for the Commercializing Research Category. The citation reads:
ONAMI is an effective alliance of academic, industry and government leaders committed to growing multi-institutional research capacity, an infrastructure network, and commercialization deal flow in a state with modest resources. Three programs encompass ONAMI’s model: cost share support for collaborative and industry-funded research, a high-tech extension program that connects a collection of shared/open user facilities to industry and startups on a fee-for-service basis, and a commercialization gap fund supporting technology entrepreneurs. ONAMI’s success has translated to impressive returns. Since its founding in 2004, ONAMI has leveraged $386 million in federal and private research and capital investment dollars, and 39 U.S. patents related to nanoscience or microtechnology have been issued to ONAMI member researchers.
The other category winners were:
- Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund – Expanding the Research Capacity Category
- Ben Franklin TechVentures – Building Entrepreneurial Capacity Category
- TechColumbus – Increasing Access to Capital Category
- Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research – Improving Competitiveness of Existing Industries Category.
- BioAccel – Most Promising TBED Initiative Category.
About SSTI
The State Science and Technology Institute is a national nonprofit organization that leads, supports and strengthens efforts to improve state and regional economies through science, technology and innovation. http://www.ssti.org
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In other news, ONAMI President and Executive Director Skip Rung has been appointed to the National Science Foundation SBIR/STTR Advisory Committee, which held its fall meeting October 24-25 at NSF’s headquarters in Arlington, VA.
The purpose of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Advisory Committee (AdCom) is to advise the NSF program administrators on how best to accomplish the goals of the SBIR and STTR programs.
The goals of the NSF SBIR/STTR program are to:
- 1. Stimulate technological innovation in the private sector
- 2. Use small business to meet federal R&D needs
- 3. Foster and encourage participation by minorities and disadvantaged persons in technological innovation
- 4. Increase private-sector commercialization innovations derived from federal R&D
The SBIR/STTR Advisory Committee (AdCom) meets twice a year. Members represent a cross section of academe, industry, investment community, and state/local economic development offices with a balanced representation of women and under-represented minorities. We believe that this diversity allows the SBIR/STTR AdCom to encompass as many perspectives in the small business community as possible.
For additional information, see http://www.nsf.gov/eng/iip/sbir/adcom_info.jsp
About NSF
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…” With an annual budget of about $6.9 billion (FY 2010), we are the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing.
