U., USU set $$ sights high

Utah business and education leaders are preparing to ask the Legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee for tens of millions of dollars to build new facilities and attract top researchers to Utah State University and the University of Utah.

A draft proposal would ask for $21 million to draw 50 new research teams to USU and the U. Another $3 million of that amount would fund technology innovation outreach centers in rural Utah.

The biggest component of the request is $250 million for infrastructure support to the universities over a five-year period.

The effort is part of an economic development initiative called USTAR — Utah Science, Technology and Research — designed to promote research in technology.

Jack Sunderlage, president of the Utah Information Technology Association, said he thinks it will be a tough sell to get the $250 million.

"I suggest to you that if we don't make the investment, we are going to be at risk at not only being able to attract new talent but looking at the problem in retaining existing talent," Sunderlage said Tuesday. "We support USTAR because we believe this is an initiative that best positions Utah as an entrepreneurial and innovation leader in the world of high technology."

The effort already received $7.35 million in state funding for 2005. That money is being used to implement the program, pay for specialized research equipment at the U. and hire three research teams focusing on brain sciences, digital imaging technology and microbe biotechnology.

Lane Beattie, president and chief executive officer of the Salt Lake Chamber, said the USTAR initiative has the backing of Utah's business community. The economic future of Utah, he said, will be based on science, technology and research.

"In this century, when it comes to economic development, innovation is life," Beattie said. "We cannot build our economy on service industries. I love McDonald's, but I promise you the goal of my grandchildren is not to be a worker at McDonald's."

The USTAR initiative has been adopted by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. as one of his six main economic pushes.

Jack Brittain, vice president of technology venture development at the U., said the USTAR initiative was not the idea of the state's research universities.

"The business community came to the universities and said, 'We would like to pump up the number of technology businesses in Utah,' " Brittain said. "They're calling on the research universities to hire these teams to create the technologies."

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