Sirti Budget Request Soars New Board Seeks $3.8 Million From State, Up From $1 Million

Money will run out soon. Some thing has to be done.

That was the theme for the newly appointed 17-member board of the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute at its initial meeting Wednesday morning.

Amid a getting-to-know-you atmosphere, the board voted unanimously to submit an “aggressive” biennial budget proposal of $3.8 million to the state Office of Financial Management for the budget cycle beginning July 1 of next year.

The alternative was a “conservative” proposal of $1million, which would continue the current level of funding.

“We don’t want to present something that’s a laughing matter to the state, but we do want to be aggressive at least as a placemark for the future,” SIRTI executive director Lyle Anderson said.

The thinking was that budget requests get trimmed, and the only variable is how much.

“It should be as aggressive as we need,” said board member Bernard Daines, president and CEO of Spokane computer networking company Packet Engines. “This is our first year, and to get it off the ground, the state should get behind it.”

SIRTI is in its first year of receiving state money as an independent state agency. It previously had been part of the Joint Center for Higher Education in Spokane, which was dissolved this spring as part of the Legislature’s decision to hand over the Riverpoint campus to Washington State University.

Before that, SIRTI had been criticized as vague in its mission and weak in its results. The 18-employee agency’s mission is to use academic and technological expertise along with grant dollars to help fledgling businesses get off the ground.

Anderson noted that in April 2000 a six-year, $15 million grant from the federal Department of Defense runs out, and will not be renewed. Until this year, SIRTI has survived on that grant alone, and received no state money.

The board had planned to elect officers, set a future meeting schedule and select committees during the meeting, but didn’t have time for any of that because of debate over SIRTI’s mission, and how it will be funded.

One way of finding money is a tactic SIRTI has used for the past year. Companies that receive a grant are expected to pay back four times the amount of the grant over a negotiable span of five to 10 years, associate director Tony Lentz told the board. Typically, SIRTI only receives 30 percent to 60 percent of the principal of its grants back from companies, he said.

Since so many companies fail, SIRTI’s self-sufficiency isn’t considered realistic, so the conversation turned to government grants.

Anderson suggested SIRTI pursue federal research grants to keep SIRTI channeling money toward its mission, while the state would supply operations money to keep the doors open.

Applying for such grants in the future was a point of contention. Daines and Tom Simpson of Spokane Capital Management questioned whether a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Marine Corps for a hydrogen fuel cell technology partnership and a $3.4 million grant to develop sensors to detect particles in the air such as those used in biological warfare would fulfill the mission. Part of the grant would also be used for medical treatment devices, especially for battlefield trauma.

Daines was skeptical whether the grants would channel money into areas other than local startup companies trying to get off the ground, which is the agency’s purported mission.

Anderson responded that the business partners and contractors in the military projects would be local, so that boost would invigorate local technology business, in line with the agency mission.