Our member The Technology Farm (the Cornell Agriculture & Food Technology Park) has announced a new Tech Farm Associates Program, aimed at companies that do not need to be located at the park's existing multi-tenant building, but want to be included in its network of tenants. Associates will be included in park marketing materials, have access to offices and conference rooms on a limited basis, and qualify for assistance from regional business-service providers already supporting The Technology Farm. For more information, please see the attached announcement. 

Our member the South Side Innovation Center (SSIC) received the prestigious Dinah Adkins Incubator of the Year Award (general and special interest category) from the National Business Incubation Association, the leading international organization dedicated to business incubation and entrepreneurship.

The SSIC is a program of the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, providing hands-on business counseling, training and mentoring for 1,500 existing and aspiring entrepreneurs each year. SSIC is currently incubating 27 businesses in a beautifully renovated furniture warehouse on the South Side of Syracuse. Programs co-housed in the SSIC facility include the SBA-funded WISE Women's Business Center and Program for Investment in Micro-entrepreneurs (PRIME); an Empire State Development-funded Entrepreneurial Assistance Center; the Syracuse Community Test Kitchen; NYSERDA-funded training for low-income individuals; and programs to train entrepreneurs with disabilities and survivors of domestic violence.

For more information, see the university's news release, coverage on the Post-Standard's syracuse.com, or the profile of SSIC on the NBIA website. Congratulations to director Bob Herz and all the talented members of his SSIC staff!

Applied DNA Sciences, the latest venture by Long Island serial entrepreneur Jim Hayward to reside at our supporting member the LIHTI incubator, was featured at the website of Spectrum, the magazine of the IEEE professional society.

According to Spectrum, ADNAS is working with the DOD Defense Logistics Agency to apply its coding technologies based on plant DNA to "fingerprint" electronic components, protecting against counterfeits entering the defense-technology supply chain. The ADNAS technology has been shown to sruvive the heat and stresses of semiconductor processes, and is currently being studied for integration throughout the supply chain, Spectrum reported.

Hayward was the founder of the Collaborative Group, an advanced-technology company serving the personal-care products and pharmaceutical industries, which has been an anchor tenant at LIHTI since 1990. Collaborative operated independently for 14 years before being acquired by Engelhard (now BASF) in 2004. ADNAS is his next venture, which he also chose to locate at the LIHTI incubator. It is now a publicly traded company (OTCBB:APDN). Hayward addressed the 2008 annual meeting of our association, which was held at LIHTI.

The Chautauqua (County) Seed Fund has invested $20,000 in Henlie, Inc., a tenant/client of our supporting member the SUNY Fredonia Technology Incubator. Henlie is the developer of an online dispute resolution community branded PettyCourt. Petty Court will target market segments including reality TV viewers, social-network members, and online gamers. 

The Chautauqua Seed Fund was created by county government specifically to complement the services of the incubator and improve the prospects for private financing of the best-qualified tenants. The $125,000 fund invests between $15,000 and $30,000 in each deal through convertible notes, requiring a 30% equity match by the founders.

Funded by the County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency, the Chautauqua Seed Fund is a collaboration of the Fredonia Technology Incubator, County Executive Gregory Edwards, and the Chautauqua Region Industrial Development Corporation. The fund's investment committee comprises local bankers and business/civic leaders as well as the incubator director.

For more information see the attached news release or coverage by WKBW.