Florida continues to shine as one of the nation’s best states for business, ranking No. 1 in the nation for Workforce, among the Top 10 in Technology & Innovation and Access to Capital, and moving up to rank 3rd overall in this year’s Chief Executive survey of the best places for jobs and business growth. (Chief Executive)  

Florida’s academic institutions attracted more than $1.5 billion in research & development investment in FY2007- the 10th highest among all U.S. states.  (National Science Foundation)

Concentrated solar thermal energy is having its moment Solar thermal, the other method for generating energy from the sun besides photovoltaics (PV), uses solar collectors and lenses to concentrate sunlight to generate hot water or electricity (via steam or gas powered turbines). Solar water heating is a widely adopted technology, but large scale electricity generation - concentrated solar thermal (CST) has long been troubled by inefficiencies that have kept costs high. Now, CST is on a major growth spurt thanks to technological breakthroughs that are bringing it closer to grid parity.

Boca Raton-based TMS Health, a healthcare and pharmaceutical sales and service provider, plans to hire 153 additional employees.  (Read more)

The Paperfree Tampa initiative aims to change completely the way doctors prescribe and practice medicine, by digitizing the entire medical record-keeping process, from patient charts to lab reports and test results. Over the next two years, Tampa's leaders plan to train every one of the 8,000 physicians in the area in electronic prescribing, with the goal of having at least 60% of all eligible prescriptions by Tampa Bay doctors written on a computer instead of a prescription pad.  (Time Inc.)

United Launch Alliance, a joint venture partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, was awarded a $600-million NASA contract for four Atlas V rocket launches that will blast off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Launch Complex. Two communications satellites and two science missions will be launched under the contract.  (Florida Today)

The University of South Florida's Power Center for Utility Explorations and Progress Energy Florida have been selected to build the largest and most comprehensive smart grid in the Southeast, a $15 million project serving at least 5,000 customers. (Read more)

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) has awarded Phase II grants to three photonics companies based at the University of Central Florida's Incubation Program. The three winning companies, all part of UCF's Photonics Incubator, are bdDisplays, SD Photonics, and PICO Technologies. Funding for research and development will help the companies compete in today's marketplace.
(The Accelerator newsletter)

The University of Florida's College of Medicine was given $20 million to create the Jerry W. and Judith S. Davis Cancer Endowment. The gift is the largest single donation made to the College of Medicine, and it will be used to support teaching, research and programs in cancer, with special emphasis on research in lymphoma, breast cancer, bone marrow and gastrointestinal cancer. Shands HealthCare also received $1 million for its Raising Hope Campaign to support construction of the $388 million Shands at UF Cancer Hospital.  (University of Florida Shands Cancer Center)

Doctors at Tampa's Moffitt Cancer Center performed Florida's first-ever thoracoscopic pneumonectomy - a procedure which involves inserting a small camera in the chest to identify and remove an area with a tumor. The area around where the tumor used to be is then treated with an absorbable mesh containing radiation seeds. This procedure was the first in a new series of minimally invasive approaches to thoracic cancers that will be implemented at Moffitt.  (Moffitt Cancer Center)