Southern Tier Soft Landing Program Brings Jobs and Dollars to Upstate NY
Renewable energy ventures are breathing new life into the Upstate New York manufacturing industry. The S.C. Johnson College of Business at Cornell University and the Binghamton University Center for International Business Advancement (CIBA) plan to accelerate that movement through their newest collaboration, the Southern Tier Soft Landing Program.
The Southern Tier Soft Landing Program invites 45 foreign ClimateTech companies to come to Upstate New York and participate in the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator. Student teams will work with the entrepreneurs to support them through process of establishing their businesses in the United States. By encouraging the region’s research institutions and businesses to join forces on green technology and workforce development, the program aims to create high-paying jobs in the region.
The Economic Development Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, awarded the Southern Tier Soft Landing Program a three-year, $1.6 million grant for the collaboration. The funding was announced by Senator Charles Schumer, who said the program is estimated to create 365 jobs and generate $2.7 million in private investment.
The program kicked off on April 7 at “The Southern Tier and the World: Recharging Sustainable Economic Growth with New Battery Technologies,” CIBA’s seventh annual Global Trade and Investment Forum.
Elena A. Iankova, founding director of CIBA, spoke at the event, discussing the program’s objective to forge international business partnerships in order to promote economic growth and job creation in the region. Iankova serves as a senior lecturer of international business at the SC Johnson College of Business, and from 2002 to 2018 was a senior lecturer and research scholar at the Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Learn more about the Southern Tier Soft Landing Program.