Area ranks at top for research

Times Union

By: Eric Anderson

Albany – The Capital Region fares well in a new analysis by the Albany-based Center for Economic Growth looking at the role university research and development plays in the local economy.

The analysis, covering 2011 to 2015, measures total university R&D spending, R&D spending per worker and per $1,000 in gross metropolitan product, a measure of the metro area’s overall economic output.

The three rankings were then added to determine a total ranking score.

Among cities in the Northeast, which includes New England as well as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the Capital Region ranked fourth, behind Ithaca (No. 1); Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa. (No. 2); and New Haven-Milford, Conn. (No. 3).

Rounding out the top 10, in order:

5: Pittsburgh;

6: Boston-Cambridge-Newton;

7: Barnstable, Mass.;

8: Trenton, N.J.;

9: Rochester

10: Burlington, Vt.

The analysis calculated that the Capital Region’s schools spent a total of $574 million on research and development during the five-year period, ranking eighth among metros examined. But its average spending of $1,355 per worker and $12 per $1,000 of gross domestic product both ranked fifth highest.

SUNY Polytechnic Institute, focused largely on nanotechnology research, accounted for nearly 56 percent of total research spending in the Capital Region during the five-year period.

But the school has been scaling back its research activities in the wake of state and federal probes into bid-rigging that resulted in the arrest of SUNY Poly’s president, Alain Kaloyeros, who has since left the school.

More details on the analysis and its methodology are available at http://go.ceg.org/researchblog/rdspending.