Gov. Ted Strickland and Glenn Acting Director Ramon "Ray" Lugo sat side-by-side Friday to sign an agreement calling for regular meetings, worker exchanges and collaborative projects, in areas like stored energy and biofuels development.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- NASA Glenn Research Center and the state of Ohio have pledged to become better friends, in hopes of advancing the aerospace industry and economic development in the state.
Gov. Ted Strickland and Glenn Acting Director Ramon "Ray" Lugo sat side-by-side Friday to sign an agreement calling for regular meetings, worker exchanges and collaborative projects, in areas like stored energy and biofuels development.
It's the latest sign that the Glenn center -- possibly the region's largest cluster of brainpower -- wants to shed its close-to-the-vest ways and have a greater presence in the community.
Strickland called the center an "amazing asset" and a big reason the region, and Ohio, is strong in the aerospace industry.
A 2007 study by the Ohio Aerospace Institute found 1,200 companies doing $2.13 billion in aerospace business.
The Glenn center, which employs some 3,000 civil servants and contractors, has strengths in aeronautics, propulsion and communications.
Friday's agreement calls for NASA and state development officials to meet regularly for updates on NASA's research efforts, to see if they might be leveraged with state investments into technologies that could be taken to market, officials said.
Mark Barbash, Ohio's chief economic development officer, and Robert Shaw, head of Glenn's business development and partnership office, will lead the "strategic alliance."
They've already identified 17 potential areas of collaboration, Lugo said.
It's NASA Glenn's latest partnership, in keeping with its goal of "becoming an integral part of the Ohio community," according to the center's 2008 strategic action plan.
Recently, Glenn has become a partner in one of Cleveland's science-and-technology high schools.
In March, Glenn moved its visitor center from aging quarters on its Brook Park campus to the Great Lakes Science Center on the downtown lakefront, to raise the center's profile.
Criticism that the Glenn center was too insular in the past was "fair comment," Lugo said.
The Greater Cleveland Partnership, the metropolitan chamber of commerce, has been pushing the Glenn center into the spotlight.
Carol Caruso, the partnership's vice president of government advocacy, credited Lugo and his predecessor, Woodrow Whitlow.
"It's a very new attitude," Caruso said.
