Agency: Small Business Administration

Project Title: California State University Biotechnology Partnerships Program

Recipient:    California State University
Location:      California State University, Office of the Chancellor
Amount Requested:  $500,000

The California State University Biotechnology Partnerships Program is a system-wide workforce training program coordinated by three campuses (East Bay, Los Angeles, and San Diego) in the State’s biotechnology hubs.  The program’s goal is to facilitate career development and job placement of highly skilled individuals to work in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.  Total cost of the initial phase of this project is approximately $20 million, with the majority contributed by the State.  Federal funding will be for program development and technology.

California life sciences companies and research institutions currently employ more than 260,000 professionals and provide an indispensable economic contribution to U.S. success in this sector.  To maintain the U.S. lead in global bio-commerce, training platforms must be created to rapidly prepare the next generation in this specialized workforce.  This program will train students at all workforce experience levels, from entry-level technicians to career scientists, capable of translating discoveries into medicines, diagnostics, biofuels and improved crops.

The program’s success will be measured by the number of graduates trained and its ability to become self-sustaining based on industry partnerships.  Because the majority of companies in these fields are small businesses, I am requesting these funds in the Small Business Administration.  This program deserves federal investment because it seeks to maintain and improve the nation’s global advantage in these industries, which will only become more important in the future.

 
Project Title:  Port of Los Angeles Technology Advancement Program and Clean Technology Development Center

Recipient:   City of Los Angeles
Location:     Los Angeles Harbor Department (Port of Los Angeles)
Amount Requested:  $1,500,000

The Clean Technology Development Center at the Port of Los Angeles is a  public benefit, non-profit business incubator, which assists small businesses test their ideas and manufacture prototypes of sustainable green technology that enable the maritime industry to meet environmental, energy, transportation and security requirements.  Federal funds will be used for facility improvements, research services, and administration.

The Port of Los Angeles is part of the nation’s busiest seaport complex, which handles forty percent of the nation’s container cargo; eighty-five percent of which goes to other states.  The ships, trucks, and trains that move these goods in and out of the port produce incredible water and air pollution.  The Mayor has set an aggressive plan to clean up the Port, which includes this project.  The Technology Advancement Program is already responsible for the development and manufacture of the first zero-emission, all-electric, heavy-duty drayage trucks, which haul thirty-ton shipping containers inside ports and will replace the diesel powered yard tractors in current use.

The City asserts that this project will create thirty jobs in 2009, but the program’s success will be determined by the “green collar” jobs created in the future from the companies developed by the incubator.   Major goods movement and industrial centers across the country will be able to replicate this model for small business incubation and can benefit from the clean technologies developed.  The $1.5 million in federal funding requested will be matched over two-to-one by local public and private funding, leveraging the $2.7 million that the Port has already committed for FY10 and $3 million for FY11 and FY12.