Hochul: $46.5 million in training grants for three colleges

New York State will invest $46.5 million in building projects at three local colleges to prepare students and others for careers in high-technology fields, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Tuesday.

The grants to Farmingdale State College, Long Island University and Stony Brook University are from the $350 million Long Island Investment Fund, which was established by Hochul and the State Legislature in the 2022-23 state budget.

Hochul said the three grants will be matched by $122 million in private funds and other government spending.

"We're building an ecosystem for the life sciences that will attract the smartest people to Long Island," she told about 200 people at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on the LIU Post campus in Brookville.

"We're going to create thousands of jobs — and we're just getting warmed up" in selecting local projects worthy of state grants, she said.

Together, the projects announced on Tuesday will initially create 158 high-paying jobs for educators, researchers and others, according to Hochul.

The largest grant — $30 million — will go toward constructing a 40,000-square-foot building to house Farmingdale State’s Center for Computer Science and Information Technology Systems. The center will be home to seven programs that make up the college’s Division of Computing.

The project, first proposed in 2016 and with a total cost of $75 million, will create 35 jobs. The remaining $45 million in building expenses will be covered by the SUNY Construction Fund, Hochul said.

Farmingdale State president John Nader said the initiative "will yield a growing supply of talented graduates and skilled professionals to serve the region's tech sector." He said the college awarded more than 500 degrees last academic year in computing and information technology.

At LIU, university president Kimberly R. Cline said its $10 million grant will help build a 40,000-square-foot facility for the College of Science Applied Research and Innovation. The $30 million project will create 70 jobs on the Post campus.

She said LIU plans to introduce new majors in artificial intelligence, digital engineering and drug discovery and production. It also will provide space in the new building for high-tech startups and encourage the commercialization of inventions from the School of Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine.

"What aerospace was to Long Island's success in the past, life sciences will lead to our prosperity in the future," Cline said, referring to biotechnology companies, drug and vitamin manufacturers and medical research.

Stony Brook University received $6.5 million to construct a Quantum Internet Testbed in collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The $13 million project consists of “a network of five nodes” across Nassau and Suffolk counties that are connected by optical fiber. The network will be used by researchers to “accelerate today’s internet functionality, to improve the security of our communications and to enable dramatic advances in computing,” officials said.

The initiative will create 53 jobs and eventually include other universities, laboratories and businesses as research collaborators, according to Stony Brook president Maurie McInnis and BNL director Doon Gibbs.

The grant "will enable Long Island to be the future epicenter of quantum networking, ultimately stimulating the economy and creating jobs," McInnis said.

The first grant from the investment fund was announced in September: $10 million for Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset for 40,000-square feet of new lab space.

So far, $56.5 million in fund money has been awarded, according to Kevin Law, chairman of Empire State Development, the agency that oversees the fund.

"We have good assets on Long Island" [between the educational and research institutions] and there will be a great return on the investments that we're making" in the form of new jobs and economic activity, he said. 

By James T. Madore

james.madore@newsday.comJamesTMadore

James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news including the economy, development, and the relationship between government and business. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.