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SL Chamber Promotes Strategic R&D Initiative
Utah business leaders joined higher education officials Wednesday to encourage state legislators to invest in basic research and development to ensure Utah’s economic future. (See Morning News story.)
In an appearance before the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee, Salt Lake Chamber President and CEO Lane Beattie encouraged lawmakers to take the first steps toward developing an aggressive research and development program at Utah’s two research universities. The resulting business spinoffs and high-paying jobs will be crucial to the state’s economy, he said.
Beattie provided subcommittee members copies of a new research report validating the importance of high-tech research and development to a healthy economy and to business creation. With many lower-skilled and manufacturing jobs going off-shore, Utah’s future is in high-paying jobs in the science and technology sectors, Beattie said. Science is advancing rapidly, and out on the horizon are entire businesses and industries to be developed in exciting areas of advanced science and technology. Beattie also made these points:
1. This initiative is about economic development and high-paying jobs, not about giving more money to universities. That’s why the business community is leading the effort.
2. While the $400 million proposed for the initiative is a lot of money, the initiative can be undertaken with much smaller financial bites. The important thing is a commitment by the state to embrace this vision, demonstrated with enough funding for an aggressive start.
3. Just as some of Utah’s biggest and most successful high-tech companies were spun out of university research, so too will these new industries and businesses spring from successful research and development, usually associated with universities.
4. Utah has lost many of its largest high-tech businesses to consolidation and relocations, and needs to develop more home-grown market leaders.
5. Many of Utah’s economic competitors, including Arizona and Colorado, understand this concept very well. They realize that the future is in science and advanced technology. They are investing massive amounts of money to ensure that their states are centers of science and technology, spinning off businesses and high-paying jobs.
6. California: $4 billion to upgrade university R&D and develop stem-cell research; Michigan: $1 billion on a life science corridor; Arizona: $650 million investment over several years for basic R&D; Wisconsin: $375 million research institute at University of Wisconsin-Madison; many other states are doing similar things.
7. To compete, Utah must get in this game. Utah has an advantage with its existing science and technology clusters in several promising niches at the research universities.
8. The Chamber commissioned the comprehensive research report because business leaders feel strongly that to keep Utah’s economy vibrant and provide good-paying jobs for students, world-class research and development centers must be created in niches where Utah already has an advantage.
Chamber press release and research report
Deseret Morning News story
Salt Lake Tribune story
Words to Live By
(Source: The Federalist Patriot)
"He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money." --Benjamin Franklin
"Advertising men and politicians are dangerous if they are separated. Together they are diabolical." --Phillip Adams
"It is only the warlike power of a civilized people that can give peace to the world." --Theodore Roosevelt
"The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it." --John Stuart Mill
"Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character." --Henry Clay
"The best portion of a good man's life is the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love." --William Wordsworth
New Legislative Directories Available
A new pocket-sized legislative directory is now available, sponsored by the Salt Lake Chamber, Zions Bank, Utah Association of Realtors, and the Utah Mining Association. Published by The Exoro Group, the directory features color photos, contact information and bios of all legislators, seating charts, committee assignments, and so forth.
The directory is a little late because publication was held up awaiting appointment of Darin Peterson and Rick Wheeler. They replaced Leonard Blackham and Mike Styler, who resigned to join the Huntsman administration. After the directory went to press, Democrat Ty McCartney resigned and was expected to be replaced this week.
Free copies will be available at the Capitol, or you can drop by the Exoro Group office, 47 W. 200 South, American Plaza III, STE 105, and grab a handful.
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