Volume 59, Issue 12  - November 6, 2006

Budget: 4th in a series
Coastal studies, commercialization centers sought
By Isis Lopez
Collegian Editor

collegian file photo

The Bahia Grande

The university is seeking funding for coastal research and to promote emerging businesses.

The funding is part of the $25.1 million exceptional items in the Legislative Appropriations Request for fiscal years 2008 and 2009, officials said.

The university’s total request of $47.7 million was submitted to the Governor’s Office of Budget, Planning and Policy and the Legislative Budget Board in August.

There are 12 exceptional items, or priorities, for a combined total of $21 million.

Priorities 1 through 7, detailed in the second and third Collegian articles in this series, include requests to restore a 10 percent reduction in funds by the state, provide additional funding to cover enrollment growth and possible inflation, and to develop research programs.

Coastal Studies Center

Priority 8 seeks funding for instructional support for a Coastal Studies Center to facilitate research and enhance educational outreach in neurobiology and biomedical studies.

“We now have a number of research projects and also research sites on the coast for coastal research,” said Vice President for Academic Affairs Charles Dameron told The Collegian in a telephone interview, adding that research is being conducted at the South Padre Island Center, a former Coast Guard station, and at Port Mansfield.

The facilities for the Coastal Studies Center, which is a partnership between UTB/TSC and the University of Texas at Pan American, would be located on South Padre Island near the southern end of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, the Laguna Madre of Texas, the Gulf of Mexico and the Laguna Madre de Tamaulipas, according to the university’s justification.

“We could together sort of pull our efforts and work together on research projects that will be valuable for our region,” Dameron said.

The center would also encourage research in marine ecology, beach erosion, environmental impact, eco-tourism, beach and dune fields migration and vegetation changes, remote sensing of wetlands and dune habitats.

“We’re going to be pulling in water from the gulf and actually filling in some of those big dry expanses and turning them into shallow wetland areas,” Dameron said.

Emerging Technologies

Priority 9 would create a Center for Commercialization of Emerging Technologies, which would establish an organizational commitment to the creation and incubation of new enterprises based on promising emerging technology and intellectual property. 

“A center for commercialization is where, in association with our [International Innovation Center business] incubator, we’d create an office where we would be able to assist entrepreneurs in taking their research and product concepts from being an idea and helping them get a patent on that product, because it’s critically important that they protect their product rights,” James Holt, dean of Workforce Training and Continuing Education, said in a phone interview with The Collegian. “So, that when they go into the marketplace it allows them the time to grow the market for their product.” 

The university’s International Innovation Center business incubator was established in 2004.

“Unfortunately, a high percentage of business fail because they are typically undercapitalized and … statistics indicate that rent is one of the things that is one of their most common and most expensive costs as well as insurance and then they use a lot of capital also to buy necessary things for the office such as furniture and equipment,” Holt said. “The function of our incubator is to help them avoid a lot of those initial start-up costs.”

He said the university’s incubator is full with 14 businesses.

“What that indicates to us is that there is really a strong need and interest in the community to be able to grow small business,” Holt said. “We’ve got a wonderful facility and it’s working well, and it’s been so successful that the [U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department] has [given] us a second award of $600,000 to continue to assist us with those operations.”

He said a goal for the use of ITECC is to develop an international trade center.

“It just makes sense, that given Brownsville’s strategic location on the border, and all forms of transportation,” he said. “We’re very well positioned to have a much higher level of international trade through Brownsville, lots of good career opportunities. So, we’re trying to grow those kinds of business here. The other part is everybody’s aware of the limitless possibilities with new technology … and this is modeled after the incubator at UT-Austin, where they have been successful at growing technology start-ups.”