Economic Impact Achievements of the CAT

The NYS Center for Advanced Technology in Photonics Applications at the City University of New York (CAT) is completing its 10^th year of funding through the NYS Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research. Since its inception (1993), the CAT has leveraged this funding with industrial, federal and institutional support to accomplish its mission: to develop and disseminate knowledge in photonics technology in order to promote New York economic development for the medical, biological, industrial and military sectors.††The results of these efforts are an extraordinary set of achievements, which we highlight here. From its inception in 1993 until the end of this fiscal year, the CAT will have:

• Generated about $50M in economic impact in New York State in new revenues and cost savings for companies. $40M of this amount has been generated, in continually rising numbers year by year, during the last 5 years (the CAT’s mature years).
• Helped companies create and/or retain over 160 industrial jobs primarily high paying technical and engineering jobs, in New York State. This corresponds to $14M in additional economic impact above and beyond the economic impact described above.
• Leveraged $16M on top of the $9M in NYSTAR funds. This consists of $8M in cash from industry, including $4M from NYS companies, an additional $2M in in-kind industry support, and about $2M in institutional support from CUNY.
• Leveraged over $20M in federal funding. The CAT has been critical to successful applications for large federal grants, including two 5-year Centers awarded by NASA and the Department of Defense in 2003, as well as over 60 other awards.
• Interacted significantly with about 60 NY companies through R&D contracts, technology licensing, proposals for joint funding and technical support.
• Created additional economic impact of $34M through leveraged federal grants. The awards have generated technical and administrative jobs for NYS, as well as OTPS expenditures. This uses a conservative economic impact multiplier of 1.7.