Business Facilities - March 2009 - (Page 16)

COVER STORY Deciphering High Tech’s Hype DuPage National Technology Park, located in West Chicago, IL (DNTP) is accessible to all of Chicago’s leading universities, top laboratories such as Argonne and Fermilab, and major Fortune 1000 companies in DuPage County. DNTP is designed to meet the needs of today’s premier technological companies. With a geographically redundant fiber communications network scalable to 100 GB per second, the 800-acre campus is engineered for ultimate bandwidth speed, redundancy, and survivability. The Peoria NEXT Innovation Center is a $13-million technology incubator that fosters discovery, innovation, and commercialization for life sciences, engineering, and information technology. Within close propinquity of the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Bradley University, Caterpillar, and the Biotechnology Research and Development Corporation, the Innovation Center works directly with Bradley University to coordinate funding and operations within the facility. These three parks are fewer than half of the high-tech office and research spaces available in Illinois, 16 MARCH 2009 making the state a preeminent cluster all its own. Factor in a slate of grants and incentives, such as the Illinois Innovation Challenge Grant Program, which provides grant writing assistance and matching funds to eli- gible Illinois technology-based entrepreneurs, innovators and new venture startups trying to acquire federal funds, and it is clear that Illinois has positioned itself as a major player in the high-tech huddle. BRITISH MIDLANDS: DIGITAL GAMING CLUSTER • The British Midlands, located just 90 miles north of London, is at the forefront of the UK’s digital games industry. The region has a long history in traditional gaming and has leveraged its advantage in traditional gaming technology to produce some of the top serious gaming applications in the world. • The UK creative sector is growing twice as fast as the rest of the economy and contributes 8.2% of the GDP. • The UK Government’s Technology Program has an annual £200 million budget to promote the UK’s international competitiveness by supporting collaborative R&D focusing on new and innovative sectors like serious gaming. • The British Midlands is home to almost half of the UK’s digital game developers. • There are over 160 game development companies based in the British Midlands, including globally known names such as PIXELearning, Blitz Games, Rebellion Derby, Free Radical Design, Circle Studio, Nu Generation Games, and Codemasters, Europe’s largest independent games publisher. • 15,200 IT companies employ more than 92,000 in the Midlands. • Costs are 25% less than those in London. (Ernst & Young) PHOTO CREDIT: DUPAGE NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PARK

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Business Facilities - March 2009

Business Facilities - March 2009 Contents First Word Snapshots Corporate Moves: Tennessee Deciphering High-Tech Hubs Industry Focus: Biotech/Pharmaceuticals The Lone Star State Continues to Burn Brightly Pennsylvania is Holding Its Own Corporate Moves: Florida Metro Spotlight: Findlay, OH Advertiser Index Ask the Expert

Business Facilities - March 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.