More than 60 attendees packed the first meeting of the new Research & Engineering Services Roundtable that the EDC held today at FSU's High Performance Materials Institute.

Keynote speaker Jane Teague, interim executive director of the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research, discussed the institute's work to match researchers' projects with sources of management and financial know-how so the innovations can reach the marketplace.

Florida, she noted, attracts $2 billion a year in research dollars that help fuel the scientific studies generating new ideas and products. They run the risk, however, of languishing in the so-called "valley of death" if additional business help is not provided to move them further along the development path.

The institute, she said, is always looking for business partners. "We can't have enough good management to take these companies out," she said of the startups born of research.

Attendees got two current examples of research in progress.  Lewis Johnson of A&M University explained that his team's work on using lasers in the remote detection and verification of hazardous substances, explosives and environmental contaminants.

FSU's Jesse Smithyman gave an update on his researchat HPMI to perfect a flexible battery that can be folded or formed into the shape of the product it powerss. The battery uses carbon nanotube technology in its design.

Morning post

The new Research & Engineering Services Roundtable conducts its inaugural meeting today at the High Performance Materials Institute.

The Economic Development Council of Tallahassee-Leon County has established the group to help develop and initiate programs related to supporting those professions and firms involved in them.

The goal of the EDC's roundtables is to promote high-wage job retention and expansion.

The meeting starts at 11:30 a.m. and includes remarks by Jane Teague, interim executive director of the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research in Boca Raton.