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Center4, based in New York City, is an accelerator that describes itself as targeted at the "emerging fourth sector" -- the convergence of the private, public and nonprofit sectors to facilitate innovation and investment for social good. It's still in its development phase and is slated to begin actual operations in early 2013. When we first wrote about them last August, they had already lined up a first-rate advisory board. Four new equally first-rate board members were announced today:

China's state-owned Zhongguancun Development Group (ZDG) has set up an incubator in Ottawa, Canada's capital. ZDG is contributing $10m to get it underway. This is their second incubator in North America - the first was in the Valley last year. The imaginatively named "ZDG Ottawa International Incubation Centre" is a partnership between ZDG and Invest Ottawa. The initial location will be in a modest 1,600 sq. ft. space at Invest Ottawa's offices.

Kauffman FastTrac® in conjunction with Propero/Healthcare Accelerator (Propero/HCA) announces the launch of FastTrac® LifeSciences™, a 10-week professional business course designed specifically for aspiring entrepreneurs who either have an idea for a science business or have already started a business and need a plan to successfully grow.

Cumberland Emerging Technologies, based in Nashville TN, has expanded its life sciences incubator to over 14,000 square feet -- more than doubling its size. The expansion increased wet lab, office and storage space. This is the third expansion for the incubator.

Nike has joined the growing crowd of corporations that are sponsoring accelerator programs. It announced on its website yesterday that it's working with TechStars to set up a program in Portland Oregon. The goal is to encourage companies to develop products base on its Nike+ digitally enabled products. The Nike+ Accelerator has begun to accept applications --the deadline is Feb 3. The program, which starts mid-March, is a shoe-in to attract entrepreneurs. It's good to see Nike get their foot in the door of the world of accelerators. It's certainly a step in the right direction.

High Tech Rochester has received some serious funds from New York State to keep its executives-in-residence (EIR) program going. In at 2-year, $600k agreement, New York State's Energy Research and Development Authority is renewing its support for the program that matches experienced EIR's with new tech companies, mainly in the energy field. HTR manages this program with companies throughout the state.

The University of Connecticut presented its plans for a major new technology park at a public meeting late last week. It's going to be big: just under a million square feet when everything is built. The first phase will be a 125,000 sq. ft. Innovation Partnership Building that will house an incubator in addition to flexible use labs and research equipment. The building is planned to open in 2015 and will cost $170M.

The Queen Creek incubator, in (of course) Queen Creek AZ --population 4,316-- relocated to new space on Dec. 5  and is hosting at series of open houses. 

The new address is 22308 S. Ellsworth Rd. The free open houses will be Dec 19 (8-10am), Jan 14 (2-5pm) and Jan 24 (11am-1pm).

Google's Campus Tel Aviv incubator officially launched today at a ceremony attended by the Israeli prime minister. The incubator is a one-floor event and community space and pre-accelerator program located at the Electra Tower in downtown Tel Aviv. Google has made this space available to early stage start-ups and developers. The incubator originally was to open in August but the opening was delayed because Google moved the location of its offices. 

NYU-Poly (Polytechnic Institue of New York University) has had it's first startup graduate from its DUMBO incubator. TENDIGI, a mobile app company founded by former Apple engineer, Jeff Soto, outgrew the space -- a good thing for a startup to be able to do! 

The Business Factory incubator in Franklin MD announced today that it will be setting up shop in a 9,000 sq ft space. The official grand opening will be on January 11 but members will begin to move in this month. The incubator targets (in their words): "artists, creatives and entrepreneurs of all stripes".

Western Kentucky University officially opened Innoplex, its student accelerator, this week. The 1,200 square foot accelerator is located at WKU's Center for Research and Development.

Colorado State University's Institute for Entrepreneurship, located in Ft. Collins, today announced that twelve student entrepreneurs and their teams have been accepted into the recently launched the Institute's New Economy Venture Accelerator program for 2013. A kick-off event will be held on December 13. The names of the teams will be announced then.

The student accelerator program is 16 weeks long and teams get $3k each in addition to mentoring and office space.