Report: LI can be 'innovation powerhouse'

Long Island has some ingredients needed for it to become a major "innovation powerhouse" -- the Brookhaven National Laboratory and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory research centers, growing federal investment in research and development, and a growing science and engineering workforce, noted the first Long Island Innovation Index report out Wednesday.

Yet, to reach its potential to become a high-tech region with booming businesses and high-paying jobs like Silicon Valley, Research Triangle in North Carolina, or San Diego, Long Island has some barriers to overcome, according to Collaborative Economics Inc., a California-based research firm, which was tapped by the Long Island Index to assess the region's "innovation" assets and challenges.

The "Long Island Innovation Index" report found that the Island "lacks a culture of collaboration that is essential to becoming a world-class innovator."

Long Island needs "dense networks of relationships" between many sectors -- researchers, venture capitalists, lawyers, accountants, marketing specialists -- to commercialize research, the index report said.

The report cheered the recent creation of Accelerate Long Island, which seeks to take scientific research done at both the labs, Stony Brook University, Hofstra University and North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System and turn it into businesses and jobs.

"The idea of growing the economy and creating better jobs is important for Long Island's quality of life," said Nancy Rauch Douzinas, president of the Rauch Foundation and publisher of the Long Island Index, now in its ninth year.

She said this year's innovation index, an attempt to marshal information about the Island's economy, research efforts and workforce -- revealed much in the way of positive news.

For example, federal research dollars coming to Long Island jumped 25 percent from 2009 to 2010. In addition, people working on Long Island with science and engineering degrees grew by 10 percent between 2000 and 2009.

That compilation of data was praised by Mark Fasciano, managing director of Canrock Ventures in Westbury, whose firm, along with Jove Equities of Babylon, recently raised $500,000 in private funds to be used as seed money to create a dozen companies over the next few years.

The measuring done by the Index's reports, he said, made "the difference between starting completely from scratch, as opposed to studying what works."