The NASA John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) Office (and its predecessors) has worked in partnership with the Mississippi Enterprise for Technology, Inc. (MsET), a 501(c) 3 company, since its establishment in 1994 in supporting technology maturation and technology transfer and application for economic development in Mississippi. SSC's partnership with MsET is based on a series of Space Act Agreements (SAA) between SSC and the State of Mississippi (for which MsET serves as its designated agent at SSC).
The SAAs have served as a basis from which a number of funded partnership activities have resulted, including a technologybased business incubator.
In 1998, SSC also joined with the State of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi to initiate and implement the Mississippi Space Commerce Initiative (MSCI), which created a statewide geospatial industry cluster focusing on remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) technologies. By 2000, this initiative had grown to include RS and GIS application activities at all of the state universities and junior colleges, and had established a collaboration with MsET to form a geomatics industry cluster at SSC in its incubator.
The university and college projects sponsored through MSCI have resulted in more robust RS and GIS training experiences and curriculum improvements for college students, leading to additional and enhanced degree programs ranging from an A.S. through the Ph.D. level statewide.
These efforts have led to an increased and better skilled geo-technology workforce available in the state, which has enabled these companies to diversify and expand their services and product base.
SSC's IPP Office has provided workshops and other opportunities over the years for these MSCI and MsET geo-technology based companies to further develop their capabilities through a number of NASA programs.
Several companies have received NASA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contracts (e.g., WorldWinds, Inc.; Diamond Data, Inc.; and NVision Solutions, Inc.) or NASA dual use awards (DataStar, Inc. and NVision). Due to SSC being a "federal city," with many other federal and state agencies co-located with NASA, the MSCI and MsET member companies have also been able to diversify their capabilities and successfully compete for similar awards from the other SSC resident agencies.
NASA/SSC still has a relationship with MsET and, as an example, in light of recent Hurricane Katrina impacts to the area is presently supporting the development of geo-technology-based emergency management and decision support efforts.
Today, all four of the major Mississippi public universities support extensive ongoing RS and GIS projects involving millions of dollars of research or services annually. In addition, some 30 small commercial enterprises routinely perform novel cost-effective services for farmers, coastal operators, city/county governments, security operations, news organizations and others.
In 2007 the Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions (EIGS), formerly MSCI, reported (in addition to state university employment in the geotechnology areas) that the Mississippi geospatial industry included more than 30 companies and employed more than 680 people with investments of $52 million and revenues of $77 million.
For more information, see "Mississippi's Geospatial Cluster Excels in 2007 with Economic Growth, Collaborations, and Awards" at http://www.eigs.olemiss.edu/newsroom/releases/071219-eigs.htm.
