The Tech Garden in Syracuse, Griffiss Institute Business Incubator in Rome, and the Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park in Geneva are among several regional incubator programs that Empire State Development is redesignating or certifying under its Business Incubator & Innovation Hot Spot support program, per a June 9 announcement. Administered and overseen by NYSTAR, […]
The Tech Garden in Syracuse, Griffiss Institute Business Incubator in Rome, and the Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park in Geneva are among several regional incubator programs that Empire State Development is redesignating or certifying under its Business Incubator & Innovation Hot Spot support program, per a June 9 announcement.
Administered and overseen by NYSTAR, the state’s Business Incubator & Innovation Hot Spot support program provides operating grants to the centers throughout their five-year designations.
NYSTAR is ESD’s Division of Science, Technology & Innovation.
The state-certified business incubators accelerate the development of early-stage companies through an array of support resources and services specifically designed to meet the needs of startup companies. Innovation hot spots also coordinate regional entrepreneurial ecosystems and can offer support and incentives to local businesses.
About $12.1 million in state funding from the Business Incubator & Innovation Hot Spot Support Program was awarded to the 14 newly designated and redesignated programs across the state as part of the Regional Economic Development Council initiative.
Innovation Hot Spots
The five innovation hot spots that earned redesignation have “delivered significant impacts for their regional economies and innovation ecosystems, fostering new collaborations, encouraging local entrepreneurship and supporting growth and job creation within startups and early-stage companies,” ESD said.
They include the Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse; the Shipley Center for Innovation at Clarkson University in Potsdam; and the Southern Tier Startup Alliance, which is based in Ithaca.
Business Incubators
The six New York State-certified business incubators — which were awarded redesignation for the “impact they’ve generated thus far” — take a “more targeted approach” than the regional innovation hot spots to meet the “entrepreneurial support needs” of communities or specific industries.
They include the CNY Biotech Certified Business Incubator in Syracuse; the Griffiss Institute Business Incubator in Rome; and the Binghamton Incubator Program, which involves the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator and the Start-Up Suite pre-incubator at Binghamton University.
Cornell Ag and Food Tech Park
NYSTAR is recognizing the Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park in Geneva as one of three newly state-certified business incubators, ESD said in its June 9 announcement.
Besides the Cornell Ag and Food Tech Park, NYSTAR is added Communitas America and Mount Sinai Innovation Partners, both based in New York City.
Each of the business incubators will have a different primary area of focus, such as lowering barriers to business entry for BIPOC (Black, indigenous, and people of color) entrepreneurs, cultivating new agriculture technology companies, and turning medical discoveries into commercial products.
Now part of NYSTAR’s statewide network of innovation resources, the three Business Incubators will receive state funding as well as administrative support and assistance.
The three newly designated centers will receive a total of $1.875 million in operating grants.
The Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park operates a 20,000-square foot incubator facility in Geneva, providing office, manufacturing, and laboratory space to startups and emerging companies in agribusiness industries. The Tech Farm, the park’s incubator, will partner with the Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture at Cornell AgriTech to better coordinate, market and deliver its services and provide access to facilities to support companies and new technologies in the ag and food industry.
Program overview
In total, NYSTAR has designated 10 innovation hot spots and 20 state-certified business incubators — including the five hot spots and nine business incubators just designated or redesignated.
NYSTAR also oversees the state’s network of Centers for Advanced Technology, Centers of Excellence, New York Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers and more. Across its programs, it has more than 70 NYSTAR-backed centers across the state that are actively working to generate technology-driven economic growth.
Collectively, they provide innovators, entrepreneurs, and business leaders with “access to the support they need to solve challenges and grow companies, often connecting academia and industry to spark collaborations that lead to new discoveries and job creation,” ESD said.