The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) has announced that the NASA Glenn Research Center, the Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network (MAGNET), the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County will receive the FLC’s State and Local Economic Development Award for their joint work on the Manufacturing Innovation Project known as “Adopt a City.” The joint project grew out of the Obama Administration’s Strong Cities, Strong Communities initiative.
The FLC is the nationwide network of federal laboratories whose mission is to promote and facilitate the rapid movement of federal laboratory research results and technologies into the mainstream of the U.S. economy.
“Adopt a City” matched small and mid-size manufacturers with subject matter experts from NASA Glenn to help companies solve challenges they were experiencing with a new or existing product. NASA Glenn provided up to 40 hours of pro bono assistance to each company, the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County made low interest loans available to companies needing financial assistance, while MAGNET served as the project coordinator helping the following eight manufacturers in 2012.
- BioInVision of Mayfield Village
- Gotta Groove Records, Inc. of Cleveland
- MegaJoule of Cleveland
- Morrison Products, Inc. of Cleveland
- Pile Dynamics, Inc. of Solon
- Sensor Development Corporation of Strongsville
- Vadxx Energy of Cleveland
- Zuga Medical, Inc. of Cleveland
“The award shows the national significance these efforts have taken on in putting together this unique partnership in our geographic area,” said NASA Glenn Director James Free. “These awards have become one of the most prestigious honors in technology transfer.”
“MAGNET is delighted to have partnered with NASA Glenn, the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County to bring this meaningful program to life and provide the world-class assistance of the NASA Glenn staff to manufacturers needing best-in-class assistance to overcome technical problems with their products, making significant revenue or job creation possible for those companies,” said MAGNET President Daniel E. Berry.
“We are proud to be recognized along with other great organizations such as NASA Glenn, MAGNET and Cuyahoga County,” said Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson. “This award confirms the collaborative effort and work that goes on throughout our region every day to build our economy and support local business.”
“Cuyahoga County is extremely pleased to be honored alongside our partners at the NASA Glenn Research Center, the City of Cleveland and MAGNET with this award recognizing the collective regional effort in assisting small business in their product development and technology transfer challenges,” said Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald. “We will continue to foster their growth in these and other creative ways so that entrepreneurs can succeed and create jobs in Northeast Ohio.”
Being recognized for their efforts in stimulating economic development in Northeast Ohio when the FLC Awards will be presented on April 23 in Rockville, Maryland will be:
- Paul Bartolotta, Carol Tolbert and Eric Baumann from NASA Glenn
- Clare Crawford, Greg Krizman, Ed Nolan and Megan Tomsik from MAGNET
- Tracey Nichols and Anthony Thornton from the City of Cleveland
- Bob Flauto and Michael May from Cuyahoga County.
Katherine K. Martin
Media Relations Office
216-433-2406
katherine.k.martin@nasa.gov
Greg Krizman
MAGNET
330-212-1564
greg.krizman@magnetwork.org