 Dear Colleagues,
At a time when the world's economy is challenged as never before, it is reassuring to know that our region's economic development interests are more committed than ever to staying the course to attract, retain and grow high technology industry and high-skill, high-wage jobs they represent.
A dozen local economic development organizations are partnered with the University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida – our region's two great metropolitan research universities – in what has become recognized as perhaps the most innovative partnership of its kind in America.
The Florida High Tech Corridor Council can call on some of the leading minds in high tech industry that volunteer their time, knowledge and expertise to help pursue the expansion of our six industrial clusters.
As you will read in this year's annual report, the Council continues to underwrite research programs through a unique matching grant program that has resulted in a total of $25.2 million of Corridor dollars funneled into 290 projects involving 145 companies over the past five years. More than $55 million in corporate and federal grant dollars have been provided to match Corridor funds equaling $80 million invested in aviation and aerospace; information technology; medical technologies; microelectronics; modeling, simulation and training; and optics and
photonics.
This year there were 95 new grants involving 60 companies. The Corridor provided $7.1
million dollars for those projects and an additional $8.7 million was raised from corporate and federal sources.
These projects were conducted in conjunction with a variety of companies and institutions from Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin to smaller information technology companies such as Maitland-based ImageSoft Technologies. For more information on each of the Corridor's target sectors and on this year's projects visit the "Sector Summaries" section of the report.
There is an even greater story behind the numbers and statistics of this annual report ...one of a continuing effort by hundreds of companies and volunteers who quietly contribute tens of thousands of dollars and tens of thousands of hours of time by talented executives dedicated to this mission.
We thank them all.
Sincerely,
Randy Berridge
President |
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