STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2394

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2943

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Higher Education and the Arts, Economic Development, Environment, and Technology, and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2943 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII RESEARCH,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to provide the University of Hawaii with express authority to create, promote, and participate in new economic enterprises and for the commercialization of university-generated research.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawai‘i System; XLR8UH; Chamber of Commerce Hawaii; Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship; Hawaii Business and Entrepreneur Acceleration Mentors; Comprendio Inc.; RealGreen Power Inc.; Startup Capital Ventures; Hawaii Business Roundtable; Aloha Startups; Startup Weekend Honolulu; Hobnob; Blue Planet Software, Inc.; Hawaii Venture Capital Association; and two individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from The Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest and one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the State Procurement Office.

     Your Committees find that the commercialization of innovative research conducted at the University of Hawaii holds great potential to contribute to Hawaii's economic health and workforce diversification.  The University has demonstrated strengths in ocean sciences, energy research, sustainable agriculture, and astronomy, and is growing in the areas of cybersecurity and health science.

     The Legislature has historically authorized public funds to support efforts by state agencies to promote entrepreneurial development, research commercialization, and access to startup investment capital.  Your Committees find that one of the core functions of the University of Hawaii is conducting basic and applied research, and it would be beneficial to the State to transform university-generated research into viable economic enterprises.  Currently, the lack of express legal authority for the University creates business uncertainty and deters private interests from engaging in promising concepts developed at the University.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting language to make the confidentiality and trade secrets provision compatible with existing frameworks of the Uniform Information Practices Act and Sunshine Law while recognizing that trade secrets and confidential commercial or financial information, including confidential information regarding qualified securities purchased by the University of Hawaii, need not be publicly disclosed; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and the Arts, Economic Development, Environment, and Technology, and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2943, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2943, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Higher Education and the Arts, Economic Development, Environment, and Technology, and Judiciary and Labor,

________________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair	________________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair
	________________________________ GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair