BOISE, ID – Governor Butch Otter’s $5 million jobs plan got a boost Thursday. A state Senate committee agreed to send IGEM to the full Senate for a vote.
Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission, or IGEM, is meant to bring companies, universities, and labs together to move research into the marketplace. It’s based on a Utah program called USTARS. But Governor Butch Otter says his office also looked at similar initiatives in Texas, Colorado, and Virginia.
Gov. Butch Otter: “We’re willing to look at any good ideas as advancing the economies of any other state or for that matter any other country.”
There are two main pieces to IGEM. The Idaho Department of Commerce gets one million dollars to set up a fund that invests in new technologies. State universities and labs get money to turn research into marketable products. Jeff Sayer directs the Idaho Department of Commerce.
Jeff Sayer: “The essence of this is to bring technology that has taken years and significant amounts of investment into the marketplace where we can in fact create new companies and jobs.”
The other four million will be shared by three state universities and the Idaho National Laboratory. If the Senate signs off on the IGEM bill, it’ll go to the Governor’s desk.
Copyright 2012 Boise State Public Radio