Is the Sunshine State becoming the Mad Science State? Florida, long known for oranges, beaches and a relatively temperate year-round climate, is increasingly becoming home to biotechnology companies working to develop breakthroughs in areas such as health care, agriculture, food and the environment. The state, which has been wooing companies that some say could ultimately bring thousands of jobs, is simultaneously working to enhance STEM degree programs and facilities at its public universities.
STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math. The State University System announced a New Florida Initiative that would put $1.75 billion over the course of five years toward STEM degree efforts and produce graduates who could help improve business, health care, development and education. The plan is to help Florida enhance a globally competitive "knowledge and innovation" economy that's sustainable, the Initiative website suggests.
Florida isn't alone in its efforts to lure biotechs, according to a June 2010 Palm Beach Post article on tcpalm.com. The state is, however, already home to a growing number of biotechs in the Tampa and Palm Beach County areas alone. The New Florida Initiative would in part align state colleges and universities with new and existing firms where STEM degree students might carry out research and ultimately find work. A January 2010 Initiative report pointed toward "knowledge economy" college towns such as those in North Carolina, where a declining agricultural economy was reshaped by strategic alliances and investments, and Ann Arbor, Mich., where a state university employs 30,000 people and the economy is becoming more high-tech.
Already, a STEM degree-producing public university in Tampa has announced that it's helping Maine-based Jackson Laboratory to find an alternate location to its initial $260 million-plus Collier County choice. Jackson Laboratory produces genetically engineered mice and conducts health care research and, with the university, is now seeking space in the Tampa area as well as near Sarasota to the south. Scripps Research Institute in Palm Beach County went through a similar process before the New Florida Initiative was borne and Scripps settled in near a state university.
Palm Beach County in 2005 spent more than $151 million on a 1,919-acre former citrus grove west of Palm Beach Gardens for a research park that Scripps Research Institute was expected to anchor, a Palm Beach Post article suggested. Environmentalists sued, and the county ended up with a $6.5 million a year debt and water lines extending to a vacant property for which it paid $60 million, a Palm Beach Post article noted. Scripps ended up with a 30-acre base in a town of a Jupiter community that the US Environmental Protection Agency considers "Smart Growth."
Abacoa, as this community is known, is a community of residences and businesses that's linked in many places by recreational paths and that, according to the EPA, takes pressure off the Everglades. In addition to the STEM degree-offering public university campus here, Germany's Max Planck Society is joining Scripps, and Scripps itself has created a spin-off company known as cuRNA. By 2015, Scripps expects that its employees are to grow to 545, an article in the Palm Beach Post suggested. There are 70 acres on an adjacent piece of property on which Scripps can expand, the research institute's website shows.
The Tampa university already has established partnerships with research facilities in St. Petersburg and in Tampa outside of its campus. On campus, the university has broken ground on an 87-acre research park, where the first phase is expected to cost $40 million, the institution's website suggests. The park would serve as a hub in the area for research in STEM degree and entrepreneurship subjects, its website suggests.
The New Florida Initiative by 2015 expects to produce an additional 25,000 college and university degree-holders and add 2,500 new faculty members who bring with them another $500 million in research money and more. The state would be spending double the amount it's been providing to public universities, its website suggests. Also according to the website, colleges and universities would be able to put some of the money toward expanding science degrees and building up their campuses. If one is interested in earning a STEM degree online, he or she can visit Education Connection to see which colleges and universities offer the best programs.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Whitney_Goldbach
http://EzineArticles.com/?STEM-Degrees-Proliferating-At-Florida-Colleges-And-Universities&id=6109910
No comments:
Post a Comment