Florida earned top spots on Site Selection's 2008 Top State Business Climate rankings.  The state's business climate ranked 4th among executives and 6th overall.   (Site Selection, November 2008)

The Innovation Quarterly is your source for the latest news and insights on Florida's Innovation Economy.

Fall 2008 Highlights:

• Forbes names America?s No.1 Economic Climate
• Biomass & Biofuel Plants are popping up all over
• The latest Micro-Technology hotspot 
• $180 Million in new National Institutes of Health funding

Is 2008 the year of the algae? It appears so, given that VC investment in this biofuels sub-sector reached a record $95 million in the third quarter, topping off a record $84 million investment in the second quarter of 2008, according to the Cleantech Group. This is a sharp reversal in investment patterns for VCs who just two years ago put $495 million in grain ethanol production and zero dollars this year.

Harris Corporation, a Melbourne-based international communications and IT company, is selected to provide launch-tracking software for NASA's Constellation, the space exploration program that will replace the Space Shuttle. The OS/COMET product will deliver critical command and telemetry processing services to meet the needs of the Launch Control System architecture.  (Read more)

The Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, University of Central Floridas graduate video game design and development program, ranked among the Top 10 schools most favored by video game industry recruiters for the quality of its graduates.(Los Angeles Times, October 2008)

 

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Oviedo High School has been awarded a grant by the prestigious Lemelson-MIT program to invent a system to protect Florida's citrus crops from freezing. Only 16 high schools in the nation are selected every year by the program, which aims to inspire new technology innovators to look for solutions to real-world problems. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)