Lawmakers hear testimony supporting $6 million for Centers of Innovation Excellence and signature research centers

House Bill 2,417, as replaced by the dash-1 amendment, would direct the Oregon Business Development Department (Business Oregon) to provide grants to Centers of Innovation Excellence and signature research centers and appropriates $6,000,000 from the General Fund for Center for Innovation Excellence grants. The House Committee on Economic Development and Small Business held a public hearing on the measure on March 26.

Mark Brady, innovation and entrepreneurship manager at Business Oregon, provided committee background on the Oregon Innovation Council and the Centers of Innovation Excellence (CIEs). He told the committee the Innovation Council was created in 2005 and first funded in 2007; he said the council’s funding for the current biennium is $18,200,000. Brady described the CIEs as public–private partnerships that support early-stage research and commercialization and said the council’s investments from 2015–2023 leveraged about $2,800,000,000 in federal and private dollars…