The State University of New York at Stony Brook will use the appropriation to build the Innovation and Discovery Centre.
The 2014 New York state budget has appropriated $60m to Stony Brook University, a public research university, to build its Innovation and Discovery Centre. The money is allocated as part of New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo’s Start-Up NY initiative.
As an appropriation, the fund will go specifically toward building the centre at the Research and Development Park, an area of 240 acres located a mile off campus and acquired in 2005 through a controversial compulsory purchase (eminent domain) that cost New York state $167.5m in a lawsuit settlement.
The centre will have 200,000 gross square feet of lab and office space for start-up companies, and will allow the university to retain companies once the graduate from the incubator. Stony Brook has had five incubators on campus for thirty years, and this new building will allow space to be freed up for more start-up opportunities.
As part of Start-Up NY, companies applying for space at the centre must support the school’s academic mission and be beneficial to faculty and students. The university expects a third of the companies accepted will deal biotechnology and medical devices, another third will be in the area of software and IT, while the rest will be in the energy sector.
Start-Up NY’s aim is to give businesses incentives such as tax breaks to relocate, start up or expand in New York state through affiliation with public and private universities and colleges. A website where businesses can apply to Stony Brook’s centre will go in mid-May 2014, but already over a hundred companies have contacted the university with interest.
Yacov Shamash, vice-pesident for Economic Development and dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said: “We will want companies that benefit the campus, whether it is doing joint research projects, whether it is recruiting students to work as interns, those kinds of relationships are very, very important. Of course, keep in mind if we are able to help grow the economy, then clearly that is in our best interest since we are a state school and it’s important for us to help the state of New York.”
