In the Deep South, places like Hattiesburg, Miss., and Birmingham, Ala., are disproving old stereotypes and forging new industries through a combination of university research and corporate R&D investment.
   In Hattiesburg, the 13-year-old Mississippi Polymer Institute has turned Mississippi into one of the leading plastics manufacturing clusters in the country. Companies doing business in the region have direct access to the faculty of the School for Polymers and High Performance Materials at the University of Southern Mississippi.
   In addition, the NASA Stennis Space Center is home to such big R&D spenders as Boeing, EADS North America, Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications and Northrop Grumman. In early June they were joined by a new $42-million jet engine testing center from Rolls-Royce, relocated from the U.K.
   Despite the lingering effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast, Mississippi's R&D clusters are growing companies from within and attracting other firms willing to relocate.
   Omega Protein Corp. of Houston announced last year that it would move its regional administrative offices from Hammond, La., to Moss Point, Miss. The relocation brings 50 new managerial and administrative jobs to Moss Point in Jackson County, where Omega employs 240 workers at its existing plant and shipyard. The company is the nation's largest manufacturer of fish oils containing Omega-3 fatty acids.
   "Omega Protein received overwhelming support at every turn," said Joe von Rosenberg, president and CEO of the firm. "It became obvious very early on that all [in Mississippi government] were committed to supporting Omega Protein's long-term business strategy."
   Growing firms like Omega enabled Mississippi to increase exports by more than 26 percent and reach an all-time high in 2005. Total exports for Mississippi last year were slightly more than $4 billion, or $828 million more than the state's total in 2004.
   "Mississippi is opening doors for export opportunities among our business and industry sectors," said Leland Speed, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. "We are changing the way the world views our state by growing industries not traditionally associated with the South and demonstrating the quality of our products and services to a global market."
   In nearby Birmingham, the second phase of a $100-million biomedical research facility began in late May and promises to attract even more biomedical companies to Alabama.
   Argo Construction is building Phase II of the Richard C. and Annette N. Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The $8-million, 12-story facility includes 323,000 sq. ft. (30,007 sq. m.) of research and office space, increasing UAB's total research space by 25 percent. The project will be completed by January.
   Among other uses of the facility, the center will permit the continued expansion of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute and help UAB recruit some of the brightest minds in the field of age-related memory disorder research.
   The nearby Southern Research Institute in Birmingham developed five cancer jobs that are on the market. SRI also performs research for steel and automotive manufacturers.
   The much-heralded Cummings Research Park in Huntsville in northern Alabama continues to be a global leader in R&D supporting the space and defense industries. With 225 companies and 23,000 employees, Cummings is the second largest research park in the U.S. (North Carolina's RTP is No. 1).
   New to Cummings is the $130-million Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology that will include a 260,000-sq.-ft. (24,154-sq.-m.) main building on a 120-acre (49-hectare) campus. The institute recruited eight biotech companies to move to the campus. Initial employment will be 600 workers, and total employment is expected to be 1,600 by 2016. The project will open in fall 2007.
   One of the newest R&D facilities in Cummings is the announced, 100,000-sq.-ft. (9,290-sq.-m.) plant for Science Applications International. The California company will conduct engineering research at the site upon completion.