Alliance Helps Startups Set Roots Across the Pond Barbara Berke     The State of Massachusetts and Scottish Development International (www.scottish-enterprise.com) have established a business-development alliance for fostering cross-border investment between the two areas. The foreign direct investment team at Massachusetts's Dept. of Business and Technology has been identifying non-U.S. locations where similar industry clusters are in place and where technology-based industries are experiencing rapid growth.       "Scotland is a good match for us in microelectronics, life sciences, software and financial services," says Barbara Berke, director of the Bay State's Dept. of Business and Technology. "There is a high degree of mutual interest and compatibility in our economies."       The short-term goal of the alliance, says Berke, is to help establish at least three companies -- two of which are in the life sciences arena -- in Massachusetts or Scotland within two years. Three Scottish companies -- representing life sciences, customer relationship management software and fiber optics -- already are taking advantage of the alliance; two are in incubators in the Boston area where they are benefiting from office and business services as well as technical assistance and site location assistance. "Another part of the agreement is that we are focused on understanding each other's export potential and what we can do to better direct and promote joint exports." "Scotland is a good match for us in microelectronics, life sciences, software and financial services." -- Barbara Berke, Director, Massachusetts Dept. of Business and Technology       Berke says her department is in the midst of a systematic review of the 27 countries with which Massachusetts has accords. An accord with Basel, Switzerland, not only helped bring Novartis's R&D headquarters for biopharmaceuticals to Cam-bridge, but helped make the process efficient and hassle-free where permitting is concerned. Besides opening new business operations, Novartis renovated the former New England Candy Co. factory in Cambridge, which is located adjacent to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.       A new, 255,000-sq.-ft. (23,700-sq.-m.) building houses laboratory and office space for the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. Including the renovation of the 500,000-sq.-ft. (46,450-sq.-m.) former NECCO factory, Novartis is investing $4 billion over the next 10 years in its Cambridge research operations.       -- Mark Arend

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