Letter from the NASVF President: Jim Jaffe
They are 38 days till the NASVF 16th Annual Conference. This theme for this year’s conference Seed Investment at the Forefront of Economic Recovery promises to deliver the key elements for all Seed and Early-stage investors; entrepreneurs, state and regional economic development organizations, academic technology transfer organizations and the federal laboratory system.
One of our featured keynote speakers is Tom Vilsack, the 30th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Secretary Vilsack and the USDA’s chief scientific research agency office of Agricultural Research Service (ARS), provide solutions to agricultural problems that affect our lives every day, from field to table. Here are a few quick facts about the ARS organization:
* 1,200 research projects within 22 National Programs
* 2,100 scientists
* 6,000 other employees
* 100 research locations including a few in other countries
* $1.1 billion fiscal year 2007 budgetear 2007 budget
So why is NASVF featuring the Secretary of the USDA at a conference for seed and early-stage capital organizations? Because as seed and venture capital investing has experienced a substantial decline in funds available for investment along with the widening of the “Valley of Death” investments, alternative investment and commercialization programs do exist.
Our mission at NASVF is to research these alternative funding solutions and present them to our members as a value-added component for our members. These programs include a new organization of federal labs under the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC). FLC is the nationwide network of federal laboratories that provides the forum to develop strategies and opportunities for linking laboratory mission technologies and expertise with the marketplace.
The FLC was organized in 1974 and formally chartered by the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 to promote and strengthen technology transfer nationwide. Today, more than 250 federal laboratories and centers and their parent departments and agencies are FLC member.
To learn more about the opportunities that exists with the FLC and our featured panel Commercializing Technologies from Federal Labs, please access the following link http://www.nasvf.org/confapp.php
