Outreach to Industry: Partnership, Partnership, Partnership
The Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR) was established in 1994 by the State of New York to utilize the extensive engineering resources of the SUNY system to help industry in the state compete more effectively. SPIR fills a critical gap in existing State industrial assistance programs by providing technically advanced multi-disciplinary assistance on a fast turnaround basis.
The intent is to help companies improve their market posture, retain existing employees and create new jobs. Over the past ten years, SPIR at Stony Brook has worked with hundreds of New York State companies on approximately 1600 projects. It is estimated that the program’s advanced technical assistance has lead to the creation/retention of thousands of jobs.
Highlights of our successes this year include continued support of the rapid prototyping facility, technical support on federal proposals to help companies win SBIR/STTR funding, active participation in licensing and commercialization of products, support for incubator companies, and assistance in providing high quality technical jobs for our graduates.
- The rapid prototyping facility that came on board last year continues to produce high quality prototypes for industry. The facility allows companies to construct physical models from 3-D computer-aided design drawings via stereo lithography (*.STL) files. Up until Stony Brook’s acquisition of this equipment, this capability did not exist on Long Island and companies were forced to send their prototyping out of the area.
- By participating in SPIR, CEAS faculty members have partnered with New York State companies to write proposals to federal agencies that have won funding in excess of $ 93 M since the program’s inception . In addition, during the past year alone, SPIR has been able to leverage a state investment of $74 K to help companies obtain more than $2.2 M in SBIR/STTR awards to develop and commercialize technology products.
- We also continue to provide a record level of support to our incubator companies to assist them in developing their technologies. This year we worked with 12 incubator companies including companies involved in the incubator without walls program.
- The program is also instrumental in assisting our graduates to find jobs. Several of the SPIR students were hired as full time employees upon graduation after completion of their projects.
The success of SPIR underscores the maturity and depth of commitment of the University-industry partnerships that have developed as a result of the establishment of the program.
