Sacramento, Yolo and five surrounding counties stand to gain technology-based businesses and the high-paying jobs that accompany them with the newly won designation as a Regional Technology Alliance.

A partnership including the University of California, Davis, has been awarded $200,000 by the state of California to create the non-profit corporation that will marshal public- and private-sector resources to accelerate the development of new technology-based businesses. The alliance will help start-ups gain access to business advice, technical assistance, new capital and government grants.

At UC Davis, the alliance will draw on UC Davis Extension to provide business training; faculty and professional staff members to mentor start-up executives; students to serve internships; and UC Davis CONNECT, which provides business assistance to start-up companies, facilitates mentoring opportunities for management, and helps identify new sources of funding.

"The alliance will play a major role in providing resources that will stimulate the development of new technology companies and industries in the area," says Director Nora Moore Jimenez of UC Davis CONNECT. "This is yet another way UC Davis, as a premier research institution, will contribute to the state and regional economies."

Established in 1999, UC Davis CONNECT joined with the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Golden State Capital Network last summer to reorganize the Emerging Technologies Institute as a partnership and apply for the designation.

The grant was awarded through the California Technology Investment Partnership program, and the designation is renewable annually. To be known as the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance, the non-profit corporation will serve the counties of El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Solano, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba.

Gov. Gray Davis announced Wednesday equal awards to create two other alliances serving the San Joaquin Valley and the Inland Empire of Southern California. The first alliances were established in 1993 in the San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego areas.

Officially beginning operations May 1, the Sacramento alliance will be managed by the Golden State Capital Network. In short order, the alliance will hire an executive director, recruit an additional 16 directors for its 25-member board and launch a membership campaign. It also will develop ties with local economic development offices and the five other alliances.

Aiming for a budget of more than $600,000, the alliance will work to raise about $200,000 in grant matching funds through a sponsorship campaign. The partners of the Emerging Technologies Institute are contributing about $200,000 in kind.