21.But some speakers were more cautious. Kenneth Kirby, now president of TransDermal Technoloies, said he had encountered difficulties in starting up his drug-delivery company in Lake Park, Florida. He identified a funding gap for start-ups in the state, saying that venture capital there is relatively under-developed. Another speaker hit a nerve by joking that Florida universities, conditioned by years of competitive football, can’t seem to collaborate very well.
22.Indeed, several competing universities would like to be champions of Florida’s scientific future, and their rivalry could hold the state back, suggests Irwin Feller, an economist and science-policy specialist at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington. Florida, he says, “fits the profile of a state where politics is in the way.” Feller adds that local politicians tend to expect an unrealistically quick return on their investment. “All their interest is economic.”
23.Sena Black, a vice-president of Enterprise Florida, notes that science-based companies started by researchers from outside the state can depart as soon as they become large enough to hire an experienced chief executive. 'To get them to stay in Florida, they have to be Florida-bred, but Floridians are not being educated in science,' she complains, adding that school science and mathematics education is weak. But she remains optimistic. 'We have these pockets of science. It's more than meet the eye.“
Digging Deep
24.Now the state seeks a larger pocket of excellence. In October 2003, Palm Beach County spent $60 million buying a large family farm for the Scripps site. What was once wetlands, and then rows of citrus trees now a muddy field surrounded by slash pines and palmettos. But lawsuits from environmentalists have put the choice of the site into some doubt, and Scripps may now consider at least one other site near Palm Beach for the complex.
25.Cortright isn't convinced by the ambitious Scripps Florida project. “I am extremely skeptical that it will produce any kind of biotech industry there. Just because they do research doesn’t mean that companies will open up. The money they are spending on Scripps moves it from way, way, way below to just about where everyone else is,” he says.
26.Griffin, who move to Palm Beach from New Jersey to work at Scripps, is cautious too. “It’s definitely not a guaranteed success,” he says, “and I think the next few years will determine whether Scripps can do what it wants.” In the meantime, he is enjoying living where he used to go on holiday.
27.Greg Schuckman, director of government relations at the University of Central Florida, thinks that Florida should be able to exploit its reputation as a land of sun, beaches and easy living. He hopes that scientists can be lured from “the tundra of the mid-west, the cost of living in California and the winters of the north-east”.
28.Yet attempting to boost a regional economy with science is a risky move, perhaps riskier than some realize. Many state initiatives, including Florida’s, are focusing on biotechnology. In Cortright’s judgement, the game in this sector is over and the winners are already in: San Francisco, Boston and San Diego, plus pockets around NIH in Maryland and at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. “Anyone pursuing it now is throwing their money away,” he thinks.
29.Feller is less dismissive. 'If a region can pull together the faculty and provide the resources, the opportunities are there,' he says. Larger states that are trying to punch their weight in science will only do so if local institutional rivalries within the states are kept at bay, he suggests. But history shows that it is possible for states. with little scientific activity to work their way up into the system over decades. “The system isn’t rigid,” he says. “It’s just very stable.”
30.Greenberg generally agrees. He also points out that projects funded by Congress without peer review – known as “earmarks” – can give a leg-up to institutions in the have-nots states. These are generally absent from the National Science Foundation and the NIH, he says, but even these agencies have programs aimed specifically at states that attract little peer-reviewed funding.
31.Still, any movement tends to be glacial in pace. “The country and its scientific enterprise are both very mature now,” says Greenberg. “These are not the gold-rush days anymore.”
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