15.411 - TARGETED INDUSTRIES DEVELOPMENT -- FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.
15.411 TARGETED INDUSTRIES DEVELOPMENT -- FINANCIAL
ASSISTANCE.
1. As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:
a. "Internship" means temporary employment of a student that
focuses on providing the student with work experience in the
student's field of study.
b. "Targeted industries" means the industries of advanced
manufacturing, biosciences, and information technology.
2. The department shall, upon board approval, contract with
service providers on a case-by-case basis for services related to
statewide commercialization development in the targeted industries.
Services provided shall include all of the following:
a. Assistance provided directly to businesses by experienced
serial entrepreneurs for all of the following activities:
(1) Business plan development.
(2) Due diligence.
(3) Market assessments.
(4) Technology assessments.
(5) Other planning activities.
b. Operation and coordination of various available
competitive seed and prototype development funds.
c. Connecting businesses to private angel investors and the
venture capital community.
d. Assistance in obtaining access to an experienced pool of
managers and operations talent that can staff, mentor, or advise
start-up enterprises.
e. Support and advice for accessing sources of early stage
financing.
3. The department shall establish and administer a program to
provide financial and technical assistance to encourage prototype and
concept development activities that have a clear potential to lead to
commercially viable products or services within a reasonable period
of time in the targeted industries. Financial assistance shall be
awarded on a per project basis upon board approval. The amount of
financial assistance available for a single project shall not exceed
one hundred fifty thousand dollars. In order to receive financial
assistance, an applicant must demonstrate the ability to secure one
dollar of nonstate moneys for every two dollars received from the
department.
4. The department shall, upon board approval, establish and
administer a program to provide financial assistance for projects
designed to encourage collaboration between commercial users and
developers of information technology in the state for the purpose of
commercializing existing software and applications technologies.
Financial assistance shall not exceed one hundred thousand dollars
per project. In order to receive financial assistance, an applicant
must demonstrate the ability to secure two dollars of nonstate moneys
for every one dollar received from the department. Financial
assistance shall be awarded to projects that will result in
technologies being developed as commercial products for sale by Iowa
companies rather than as custom applications for proprietary use by a
participating firm.
5. The department shall, upon board approval, establish and
administer a program to provide financial assistance to businesses or
departments of businesses engaged in the delivery of information
technology services in the state for the purpose of upgrading the
high-level technical skills of existing employees. The amount of
financial assistance shall not exceed twenty-five thousand dollars
for any business site. In order to receive financial assistance, an
applicant must demonstrate the ability to secure two dollars of
nonstate moneys for every one dollar received from the department.
6. The department shall, upon board approval, establish and
administer a targeted industries internship program for students of
Iowa community colleges, private colleges, or institutions of higher
learning under the control of the state board of regents. The
purpose of the program is to link Iowa students to small and medium
sized firms in the targeted industries through internship
opportunities. An employer may receive financial assistance in an
amount of one dollar for every two dollars paid by the employer to an
intern. The amount of financial assistance shall not exceed three
thousand one hundred dollars for any single internship, or nine
thousand three hundred dollars for any single employer. In order to
be eligible to receive financial assistance under this subsection,
the employer must have five hundred or fewer employees and must be
engaged in a targeted industry. The department shall encourage youth
who reside in economically distressed areas, youth adjudicated to
have committed a delinquent act, and youth transitioning out of
foster care to participate in the targeted industries internship
program.
7. The department of economic development shall work with the
department of workforce development to create a statewide supplier
capacity and product database to assist the department of economic
development in linking suppliers to Iowa-based companies. The
department of economic development may procure technical assistance
for the creation of the database from a third party through a request
for proposals process.
8. The technology commercialization committee created pursuant to
section 15.116 shall review all applications for financial assistance
and requests for proposals pursuant to this section and make
recommendations to the board.
9. In each fiscal year, the department may transfer additional
moneys that become available to the department from sources such as
loan repayments or recaptures of awards from federal economic
stimulus funds to the innovation and commercialization development
fund created in section 15.412, provided the department spends those
moneys for the implementation of the recommendations included in the
separate consultant reports on bioscience, advanced manufacturing,
information technology, and entrepreneurship submitted to the
department in calendar years 2004, 2005, and 2006.
10. The board shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A necessary
for the administration of this section. Section History: Recent Form
2007 Acts, ch 122, §1; 2008 Acts, ch 1122, §17--19; 2009 Acts, ch
82, §1
Referred to in § 15.104