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New York State Forms Partnership with Israeli Companies to Build a Drone Industry Center of Excellence

New York Governer Andrew Cuomo recently visited Israel – and came back home having formed partnerships and agreements that will support the state in developing new industries, including drones.  New York’s Empire State Development, the state’s economic development agency, will offer a $250,000 planning grant to establish a new Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Research and Testing Center of Excellence.

New York has been one of the most successful states in drawing the drone industry to the area.  Part of that success has been due to the state’s ability to combine state and local resources to benefit businesses. The new center will be led by the NUAIR Alliance, the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research organization.  NUAIR is “an organizational partner of CenterState CEO,” says a NUAIR press release.  “The organizations are strategically aligned in their efforts to build public and private partnerships to advance leading edge UAS and UAS traffic management technologies, and create a hub for the industry that will attract investments and business development.”

CenterState CEO is the corporation for economic development in the Syracuse/Center State area: and Genius NY is their business accelerator for the drone industry, offering an impressive framework of support and opportunities for winners of their annual competition to become a Genius NY team.

“We’ve had tremendous support at the local and state level to advance the unmanned aircraft systems industry,” Andy Thurling, chief technology officer of NUAIR, told DRONELIFE. “We work directly with the FAA, NASA, industry partners and standards development organizations to help develop performance requirements, standards and test methodologies. With the continued support from Governor Cuomo and New York State, Central New York will continue to be a leading force in the safe integration of unmanned aircraft into our national airspace.”

All that support and collaboration, from the Governor’s office down, has led to this new international agreement.  One of the cornerstone tenant companies, CivDrone, was a 2019 Genius NY Team: Israeli drone companies Vorpal and drone delivery company Flytrex have joined CivDrone in committing to working with NUAIR and the Center of Excellence.

“New York and Israeli companies will use the new Center of Excellence to focus on advancing technologies, which will bring Israeli technology and R&D to the New York drone market and open Israeli’s markets to New York State UAS companies.” says NUAIR.

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