New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday that the state will invest over $46 million in grants awarded to Farmingdale State College, Long Island University and Stony Brook University.
The grants are from the $350 million Long Island Investment Fund, which was established in this year’s state budget. Hochul said this round of funding will help build facilities that prepare students for careers in advanced technology.
“We're going to continue positioning Long Island as a national leader in life sciences and biotechnology,” Hochul said on the campus of LIU Post. “And you can say it all you want. But you have to back it up — you have to show that the investments are there, the institutions are ready, the training is going on, the talent is coming, that people have the jobs — then you can say we truly are a national leader in this space.”
The lion’s share of the money, about $30 million, will build a Center for Computer Science and Information Technology at Farmingdale State College.
LIU Post received $10 million to build a facility for research in artificial intelligence, digital engineering and drug discovery. Pharmaceuticals are the largest manufacturing sector on Long Island.
Stony Brook University will get over $6 million to build a Quantum Internet Testbed with Brookhaven National Lab. A broadband network will be tested in five communities on Long Island to accelerate computing and improve internet security.
The three projects will create nearly 160 jobs for educators and researchers. The grants will be matched by almost $130 million in private funds and other government spending.
“If you don't make these investments, you can't expect an industry to emerge out of nothing. You have to say this is an area we're going to focus money,” Hochul said.
In September, the first round of funding of $10 million went to Northwell Health to build new lab space at its Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.
