The Dartmouth Regional Technology Center, a "business incubator" that services small businesses in the Upper Valley, hosted Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., on Wednesday. The center, which opened in October 2006, draws technological innovations from the Thayer School of Engineering and Dartmouth Medical School, and incorporates business methods from Tuck School of Business.
The senator's visit was comprised of a guided tour followed by a question-and-answer session with the center's directors and was the first since the opening of the center.
Sununu and other members of the Economic Development Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce initially pushed hard for funding for the center. Sununu plans to continue working with the center and on the economic development of Grafton County. He said that he seeks to "understand what other needs [the center] might have in the long run to make sure this venture is successful."
The center aims to facilitate the three- to five- year transition into the real world that most small businesses require. Working in conjunction with the Grafton county Economic Development Council and the North Country Council, the center offers technologically oriented businesses space, networking, and one-on-one counseling as a non-profit organization.
Gregg Fairbrothers '76, director of the center and a professor at the Tuck School of Business, plans to increase the center's educational capacity. He said he hopes that business students, as well as engineering and medical students interested in the business aspects of their field, will take intern positions at the center.
Though the center will act as an educational resource, its primary purpose is to strengthen the local economy.
"We're doing well with job creation," said Mark Scarano, executive director of Grafton County's Economic Development Council. He reported that 87 percent of business graduating from incubators stay within the general vicinity.
"I see a lot of potential for high tech business companies graduating from the incubator and helping the local economy." Scarano said.
Dartmouth's technological innovations, ranging from BASIC to Twister, have seen past success and the center plans to localize this success in the Upper Valley. Local businesses that the center currently services include AccelBeam Devices, InTIME, and Mascoma Corporation.
Mascoma Corporation of Lebanon, which occupies the majority of the center, develops ethanol production from cellulose biomass. Ethanol from cellulose biomass is an alternative to ethanol production from corn, which consumes more water as a crop.
Although companies like the Mascoma Corporation occupy space in the center, some businesses use the facility's services without leasing space. Plans to expand the facility by 2009 will be finalized, but only after the center addresses the $3 million debt it has accumulated.
