High-Tech Fund Raises $18M

The Georgia Research Alliance's venture fund has raised more than $18 million in its first year. The fund was started by Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2008 as a way to finance high-tech startup companies borne out of university research. It takes state dollars and leverages them with a 3-to-1 match from private investors. The Georgia Research Alliance is a partnership between Georgia universities, businesses and state government designed to bring top researchers to the state and increase the number of high-tech companies. The alliance has helped 85 new companies get off the ground in Georgia since it was founded in 2002.

(Associated Press)

State rings-up grant dollars and jobs

Two hundred million dollars in grants has been brought-in by the state’s universities this year. The Georgia Research Alliance says 60 leading researchers have been attracted to the state through the "eminent scholars" program. That program is part of a plan to improve Georgia’s economy by hiring researchers whose innovation spurs new high tech companies. The Alliance says more than 16-hundred jobs have been created as a result of researchers' connections to related faculty, technicians and other workers. Since the establishment of the "eminent scholars" program in 1992, 17 scholars have founded more than 35 new Georgia companies in high-tech, high-wage areas.