California Innovation Initiatives.

The Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development serves as the Governor's lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth. The office, among others, makes recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature regarding policies, programs, and actions to advance statewide economic goals. This bill would create the California Innovation Hub Program within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. The bill would require the office to designate Innovation Hubs, as specified. The bill would require the office to issue a request for proposals for the California Innovation Hub Program, and would require the proposals to include specified information except as provided. The bill would require each designated iHub partnership to include, among other things, at least one major university or research center or institute. The bill would establish the Innovation Accelerator Account within the California Economic Development Fund and would make a continuous appropriation from that account to the office to be used for California Innovation Initiatives, as specified. The bill would require an iHub to annually post the information from these reports on its Internet Web site and notify the Governor and specified legislative committees that such information is available on its Internet Web site.