Cluster Designation Consolidates Mid-South's Existing Regional Strengths in the Biosciences

News Release
Jun 30, 2010

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, June 30, 2010 – The Memphis Bioworks® Foundation recognized today the impact of its work and of the region’s existing strengths in the biosciences by designating the Mid-South as a Regional Innovation Cluster. “Clusters” are multi-state economic growth partnerships comprised of industry, academia and government focused on advancing innovative workforces, approaches or technologies.

The cluster concept is part of the Obama administration’s technology innovation program (“Place-Based Policies”), as sponsored by the Small Business Administration, and the Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Education.

The Mid-South Regional Innovation Cluster already has a long history of creating multi-state, multi-agency programs through alliances and partnerships:

 

Bioagriculture:

August 25, 2009: Memphis AgBioworks™ (www.agbioworks.org/) initiates its “Regional Strategy for Biobased Products in the Mississippi Delta,” which encompasses 98 counties and five states (Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee) in conjunction with Battelle Research. This strategy offers a comprehensive approach to the region reaching its potential for agricultural and forestry revitalization through the development of new biomass-based markets. Industry stakeholders include BioDimensions, Inc., Buckman Laboratories, Inc., and Buckeye Technologies, among others. Government stakeholders include the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the Mississippi Development Authority, the Southeast Missouri Economic Development Alliance, and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, among others.

 

Entrepreneurship:

November 5, 2009: Innova receives a TNInvestco designation by the State of Tennessee Department of Economic Community Development to create INNOVA Fund II. Innova (www.innova.com), a pre-seed and early stage investor focused on starting and funding high-growth companies in the Biosciences, Technology, and AgBio fields, is a subsidiary of Memphis Bioworks Foundation. Its Innova Fund I was originally established under the MemphisED initiative, MemphisFast Forward in 2007.

 

Workforce Development:

January 5, 2010: Memphis Bioworks creates the Southern Energy Training Consortium (SETC), which is one of only 25 entities in the country to receive a US Department of Labor $2.9 million Energy Training Partnership Grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Green Jobs Training Program. SETC coordinates a green-jobs training programs in a 26-county area of West Tennessee and Arkansas through higher education organizations, employers, training providers, and workforce development agencies.

 

Research Development:

January 19, 2010: Memphis Bioworks joins three other research organizations to form the Memphis Research Consortium, a group tasked with improving the educational and economic opportunities for tens of thousands of Tennesseans and Mid-Southerners via research initiatives and commercialization. Leadership in this group includes the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the University of Memphis, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Wright Medical Technology, Inc., Smith & Nephew, and Medtronic, among others.

 

Infrastructure:

June 22, 2010: The Memphis Coalition of Advanced Networking (www.mcantn.org/) launches a regional optical network providing high-speed connectivity to provide a 10 gigabit per second data link among research institutions in Memphis, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the national Internet2 research network. The MCAN initiative was funded by a $3M grant from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. The founding members of MCAN include Memphis Bioworks Foundation, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, U of M, UTHSC, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Industry partners include FedEx Corporation, Cisco Systems and XO Communications.

 

Other initiatives are being formed as part of the cluster. One will be the Orthopaedic/Spinal Medical Device Clinical Research Consortium, coordinated by the InMotion Orthopaedic Research Center (www.inmotionmemphis.org), pulling together Memphis’ regional cluster resources in the medical devices industry, clinical research, and academic partners. InMotion’s partners include the U of M, UTHSC, the MED, and multiple orthopaedic companies.

The recognition, according to Steve Bares, President & Executive Director of the Memphis Bioworks Foundation, acknowledges the region’s current resources. “The MidSouth region has in its DNA enormous strengths in biosciences, and that’s what Memphis Bioworks has been developing for nearly a decade,” he says. “This cluster is a Federal-level recognition that provides greater opportunity for our organizations and partners.”



About the Memphis Bioworks Foundation

The Memphis Bioworks Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, was formed to lead the collaboration among public, private, academic, and government entities to accelerate the growth of the bioscience industry in the region. Memphis Bioworks strives to leverage and expand the regional strengths in the biosciences through education, research, job training, and commercialization. Memphis Bioworks is leading the development of the UT-Baptist Research Park, which serves as the focal point of the city's biomedical economic development.