The Toledo area has the researchers, universities, and areas of technological potential, but its ability to capitalize on them is limited so far by the lack of a grassroots network to bind them together.

For the last nine months, the fledgling Northwest Ohio Regional Technology Alliance has been trying to sow seeds that eventually will lead to the creation of such a network. The process, though, is arduous.

Still, said Mark Parr, the alliance's director and its full-time salesman, a network that can nurture, support, and take technological research to the next level - a tech business that makes products and creates jobs - will pay big dividends for the area's economy.

Most of the best technology groups, such those in Ann Arbor, Mich., and St. Louis, or the ultra-successful Pittsburgh High Technology Council, have been around a long time.

``I'm just looking to set up a Web site to help me and they've got a full-time Web master in Pittsburgh,” Mr. Parr said. “They're incredibly well funded and well organized, but they've been at it 14 years.''

In contrast, the Regional Technology Alliance, formally chartered in March, hired Mr. Parr full time in July and is only now beginning to assess the region's areas of technological expertise.

The group's mission is to focus on regional research and help solidify the area's technology base by encouraging entrepreneurs to stay in the area or move here and help them form new businesses or get their products manufactured.

The alliance raised $120,000 in operating expenses for this first year, but it hopes for $300,000 next year. The Medical College of Ohio, University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, the Regional Growth Partnership, city of Toledo, Plastic Technologies, Owens Illinois, Inc., the Edison Industrial Systems Center, Inc., KeyBank, and Buckeye CableSystem are some of those involved.

So far, its primary accomplishments are speeches and networking, trying to generate awareness of the group, Mr. Parr said. The alliance is to be a conduit of information, a link between participants, and a group that helps researchers or entrepreneurs hook up with whatever or whomever they need.

In its initial work, the organization identified 293 researchers and their areas of expertise at the University of Toledo, the Medical College of Ohio, and Bowling Green State University. It identified areas of expertise that could be enlarged, such as photonics, the technology involved in photo-chemical processes to produce video screens.

For next year, Mr. Parr said, the alliance wants to establish more connections to help technology get into the business arena, to generate support for a better telecommunications infrastructure, and to solicit seed money for entrepreneurs whose ideas show commercial promise.

First Published November 9, 2000, 12:19 p.m.