Gators score innovation points

After nearly two years of secret meetings and slow progress, Sarasota business and economic development officials could finally celebrate a major achievement: A unique and ambitious economic development initiative and partnership with the University of Florida that holds potential for both area students and businesses.

Several prominent leaders, including UF President Kent Fuchs and UF College of Engineering Dean Cammy Abernathy, attended a March 21 lunch in Sarasota that officially kicked off the program, called the Innovation Station. “For approximately the last 18 months we've been trying to make this a reality,” Jeff Maultsby, Sarasota County Director of Business and Economic Development told the Sarasota Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer.

UF's Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering will oversee the program, and the Sarasota version is the first of what the school hopes will be several more stations statewide. From UF's end, the program is a way to showcase its workforce, research and intellectual property in front of businesses and entrepreneurs.