Infotonics Center Awarded $3M

The Infotonics Center in Canandaigua has been awarded a $3 million grant from the Economic Development Administration in the US Department of Commerce. The funds will help the center incubate businesses in the fields of photonics, information systems and optics and create approximately 200 jobs in the greater Rochester region.

"This grant is a huge boost to the Infotonics Center and Canandaigua," said US Rep. John R. Kuhl Jr. (R-Hammondsport) in a statement announcing the award on Wednesday. "The research they are performing on microsystems, photonics, optics and information technology are things that we only dreamed about a few years ago, and now that research is spinning off into job- and revenue-creating businesses right here in our area."

"This investment will help Canandaigua generate a commercial environment that will attract entrepreneurs, businesses and capital," said US Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez in a statement.

The Infotonics Technology Center was formed in 2001 by Eastman Kodak Co., Corning Inc. and Xerox Corp. as a nonprofit corporation to operate New York State's Center of Excellence in Photonics and Microsystems. The center, which in 2002 moved to a 123,000-sq-ft former Xerox facility in Canandaigua, provides research and development on photonics, MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) and MOEMS (micro-optoelectromechanical systems) for applications including chemical, biological and physical sensors; planar and free-space optics and microfluidics.

The $3 million grant from the EDA Public Works Program will renovate incubator space for startup photonics, information systems and optics businesses and construct the Infotonics Commercialization Center for the manufacture of pilot products, creating 200 jobs and generating $130 million in private investment in the greater Rochester region, Kuhl said.

The center received $1 million in the FY 2007 Defense Appropriations bill and $2 million in the FY 2006 bill.

The total cost of the center's expansion is $6.4 million, with the rest of the funds being contributed by state, local and private investments, Kuhl said.

For more information, visit: www.infotonics.org