Then: In February, the Roanoke-Blacksburg Innovation Alliance (formerly Verge), Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic announced that economic development initiative GO Virginia had granted the region $4.9 million for Project VITAL: Virginia Innovations and Technology Advancements in Life Sciences.
The goal for GO Virginia’s Region 2 is to create 1,315 jobs over five years and bring a $40.8 million economic impact while setting up the region as a biotech innovation hub — in short, to move its biomedical research and medical device innovation work from labs to markets. Other Region 2 partners include Virginia Western Community College and Blue Ridge Partnership for Health Science Careers.
In total, GO Virginia approved $14.3 million in state funding for this and two sister projects in Richmond and Charlottesville. Region 2 also plans to use $3.5 million in non-state funding — a mix of cash and in-kind contributions from cities, counties, higher education institutions, medical facilities, biotech companies and other businesses, including Virginia Bio.
Now: Region 2’s prong of the project has seen two programs established: the Human Factors Usability Works at Carilion Clinic and a commercialization program tied to the International Organization for Standardization. “These programs offer affordable, local pathways for startups to validate and grow while also positioning Region 2 as a destination for life science companies to build and scale,” according to an email from Rachel Stogner, the Roanoke-Blacksburg Innovation Alliance’s grants and operations coordinator.
[Disclosure: Carilion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Virginia Tech’s Link, License + Launch program teamed with other universities in the commonwealth and the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation to begin an express license program for technology commercialization. The program funded two “proof of concept” grants to research teams, developing an obesity drug, and the other to deliver therapeutic biological compounds to the gut, Stogner wrote.
Other projects receiving Project VITAL funding included:
- The Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC’s Fralin Commercialization Fellowship graduated five fellows in October, and they have several spinout companies in the offing.
- Virginia Western administered 151 bioscience microcredential tests, awarding 108 credentials to 17 participants. The college’s biotechnology department worked directly with hundreds of elementary and middle school students at educational events, with activities such as a laboratory process called pipetting.
- Ten high school students attended a summer biotechnology career exploration camp for free, via funds from Project VITAL and other sources.
— Tad Dickens