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After nearly two years of secret meetings and slow progress, Sarasota business and economic development officials could finally celebrate a major achievement: A unique and ambitious economic development initiative and partnership with the University of Florida that holds potential for both area students and businesses.
Several prominent leaders, including UF President Kent Fuchs and UF College of Engineering Dean Cammy Abernathy, attended a March 21 lunch in Sarasota that officially kicked off the program, called the Innovation Station. “For approximately the last 18 months we've been trying to make this a reality,” Jeff Maultsby, Sarasota County Director of Business and Economic Development told the Sarasota Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer.
UF's Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering will oversee the program, and the Sarasota version is the first of what the school hopes will be several more stations statewide. From UF's end, the program is a way to showcase its workforce, research and intellectual property in front of businesses and entrepreneurs.
For example, Erik Sander, executive director of the University of Florida Engineering Experiment Station, told the audience at Monday's launch that next month UF engineering students will conduct a drag race of drones powered by the human mind. “We're going to bring that here,” Sander told Sarasota business leaders. “We're going to make that happen” for Sarasota middle and high school students.
In Sarasota, the Innovation Station, officials hope, will be another opportunity to reverse “brain drain,” when high-talent students leave the community. There are other benefits, including possibly landing new tech businesses in the area and creating a pipeline that connects State College of Florida with UF. That would allow students to spend two years at the smaller school before transferring.
The Innovation Station is scheduled to open next fall, with a director and two program coordinators, according to a grant agreement with Sarasota County. The $3 million budget will come from a combination of organizations. Sarasota County will put in $1 million over five years, and UF will cover another $1 million. The Sarasota-based Charles & Margery Barancik
Foundation is the lead philanthropic partner and awarded a five-year, $980,000 grant, according to a UF statement. The Gulf Coast Community Foundation, based in Venice, made a one-year grant of $63,000.
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