Professor urges pursuit of grants

Millions of dollars for business research is no fairy tale, a professor says.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- A chemistry professor is building a coalition of business leaders to track down research and development grants that he thinks can transform the Mahoning Valley.
Much is at stake, Allen Hunter of Youngstown State University told a group of 25 executives Tuesday.
Other areas of the country are growing with new products that have been funded by tax write-offs or government grants, he said. Locally, business owners are paying for research with their own money or the company's cash flow, which limits the amount that can be spent on innovation, he said.
Hunter figures that, on a per-person basis, the region should be receiving $333 million a year in federal and state help for research and development, but instead it is attracting about $100,000.
Business leaders such as Tom Kantor, president of McDonald Steel Corp., talked with Hunter after his presentation to learn more about gaining government help for research at their companies.
Wouldn't believe it
Hunter said that until recently business executives throughout the area have treated his presentation on federal aid as a "fairy tale."
"No one in the Valley has accessed this money, so they don't believe in it," he said.
Hunter, a Canadian who is about to become a U.S. citizen, has been among the YSU faculty using grants to upgrade the school's chemistry department since the early 1990s.
Hunter's message is starting to gain traction, however.
Companies such as M7 Technologies, Fireline and Zethus Software, all of Youngstown, are part of a coalition he is organizing to apply for two grants through the Third Frontier bond issue that was passed by Ohio voters.
One would provide $28 million to establish a branch office of the Ohio Supercompter Center at YSU. The office would focus on bringing new software innovations to industry so they can be used by workers on the shop floor.
The other seeks $8 million to create an organization that would provide research needed to bring products to market. The lead applicant will be CyberTech Innovation, a for-profit company that is being created by area companies.
Deadline approaches
Hunter says the Mahoning Valley has a small window of time to become one of the nation's leading centers for cybertechnology, which is advanced technology that can be used by regular workers to complete complex tasks.
The deadline for both Third Frontier applications is June 21, and decisions are to be made in November.
Hunter also wants to help companies secure money for research and development on their own.
He hopes to persuade 20 or 30 companies to attend a noncredit workshop this fall to learn how to apply for grants from the federal Small Business Innovation Research program, which provides research money to small businesses.
Hunter plans to hold meetings every Saturday during the fall semester, where teams of business executives would work together to develop and critique one another's proposals.
He said the success rate for obtaining these grants jumps from 15 percent to 30 percent when a structured program is used.
Hunter's talk was hosted by the Mahoning & amp; Shenango Valley Advanced Manufacturing Initiative.
shilling@vindy.com