Awards help generate large return for Oklahoma – $11MM generates more than $200 million in private and federal funding

The $11 million kick-start that the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology awarded Oklahoma’s technology community last year brought almost 20 times that amount back into the state, the center said Thursday.

By:
Jim Stafford
The Oklahoman

http://www.nasvf.org/web/allpress.nsf/pages/8721

In its annual "Impact Report 2004," the state- funded center said scientific researchers and technology-oriented businesses used the center’s awards to generate more than $200 million in private and federal funding in fiscal 2003.

That’s an 18-to-1 return on investment, said William A. Sibley, executive director of the center.

"Our return on investment is somewhere between $15 and $20 per dollar the last couple of years, and that’s very unusual and very high," Sibley said.

"We’ve got not only good people here at OCAST that I work with, but the people in Oklahoma have great ideas. It’s just a question of opening the doors to them for some opportunities in Washington, D.C., and other places where we can leverage that money."

Among the accomplishments the center trumpeted in its report was its $3 million Oklahoma Health Research program, which assists state researchers by providing seed funding to compete for grants and contracts from the federal government and research- related organizations. The program’s grants generated $18.5 million in further investment last year.

"Of all the things that the state does for biomedical research and all the things it does for economic development, that $3 million in OCAST Health Research program is the best investment they make," said Dr. J. Donald Capra, president of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

Foundation researchers often compete for and win the Health Research program grants, which are generally $45,000 per year for three years. The grants allow the researchers to generate preliminary data, which is then used to win much larger grants from the National Institutes of Health and other agencies, Capra said.

"I have told both Gov. Keating and Gov. Henry on more than one occasion that if they want to do more for the economy and for biomedical research, they should double or triple or quadruple the OCAST budget, because it is an unbelievable investment," he said.

Another of the center’s programs, the Oklahoma Applied Research Support program, generated more than $53 million in further investment beyond the original $4.8 million in awards it made last year.

In the 16-year history of the Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology, it has made $104.9 million in awards, which have then attracted $1.35 billion in private and federal awards and grants.

The center also funds the nonprofit corporation, i2E, which operates the Oklahoma Technology Commercialization Center.