| For Release: IMMEDIATE | Contact: Norman Smit |
| Date: March 26, 2004 | (919) 807-6963 |
42 PROPOSALS COMPETE FOR GRANT TO FURTHER BOOST BIOTECH EDUCATION AT NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNITY COLLEGES
RALEIGH: North Carolina Community Colleges and biotech companies put their heads together on a number of community college education projects that will significantly enhance the education and skills training of people wanting to work in the biotech industry in future. The initiative will also beef up existing training equipment and curricula, thereby strengthening what’s offered to people already working in the biotech industry. Forty two were submitted to the North Carolina Community College System after a formal call for proposals earlier this month. The request followed months of preparation between the colleges, the NCCCS and industry. The deadline was 5 p.m. March 26, 2004.
Susan Seymour, the North Carolina Community College BioNetwork Director, said this about the significance of the initiative: "The BioNetwork grant from Golden LEAF provides resources to the state’s community college system to enhance curricula and upgrade equipment for hands-on technical training so that we are able to meet the job growth of existing companies as well as attract new enterprises to North Carolina. "
Seven Community Colleges are vying to host the BioNetwork Competitiveness Centers at their campuses. "The BioNetwork Competitiveness Centers will play a lead role in developing expertise to grow the industry in the state", said Ms Seymour. The centers will initiate projects, develop curricula and amass expertise to share with community colleges across the state. This will further strengthen workforce development - which to date has been done in close partnership with industry. Workforce development has already played a key role in the decision-making by many biotech companies to choose to locate plants in North Carolina. The five centers will share an annual $1.6 million budget.
The five BioNetwork Competitiveness Centers and the Central Learning Center must each be located at a community college in a different economic development region. However, each center will be responsible for sharing its expertise with community colleges throughout the state.
The greatest number of proposals were for the Biotechnology Innovation Fund. Nineteen proposals were received from colleges all over the state. The proposals ranged from developing marine biology courses to bioagriculture and industrial technologies.
Fifteen
proposal requests on enhancing biotechnology equipment and related facilities were turned in. The intent of this request was to strengthen the statewide community college biotech training infrastructure. Submissions covered both the acquisition of new equipment and technology as well as the retrofitting of existing facilities. Some skills needed in biomanufacturing environments can be taught only by exposure to either the process or by using the kind of equipment found on the factory floor and the submissions reflected this.The Central Learning Center will be located at the BTEC Pilot Plant planned at the NC State University Centennial campus and will manage, operate and deliver specialized community college training and education services. The dedicated community college system space will provide hands-on aseptic process training. The center will provide a sophisticated and realistic learning environment in which in large-scale biomanufacturing can be taught. A consortium of the seven community colleges in the Research Triangle submitted a joint proposal to manage the specialized capstone training space and mobile lab.
Reviewing of the proposals begins in the last week of March and an announcement about the successful submissions will be made in May.
The budget for the Central Learning Center is $1.1 million, which includes $420,000 for a Mobile Biotechnology Training Lab. The Biotech Innovation fund is $400,000 this year. The budget for this year for the Biotech Equipment and Related Facility fund is $1.2 million. All of these budgets are contingent upon continued availability of funds in future. The budget for the successful proposals will come from grant money from Golden LEAF.
For further information, contact:
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Susan Seymour |
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