Regional Bioscience Industry Receives $2.75 Million from Fund
CLEVELAND (June 2, 2005) - A local organization dedicated to fostering and accelerating the growth of the bioscience industry in Northeast Ohio has received a $2.75 million boost from the philanthropic community.
BioEnterprise, a five-year partnership launched in 2002 among Case Western Reserve University, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, University Hospitals Health System and Summa Health System, has received a grant from The Fund For Our Economic Future, a collaboration of nearly 70 philanthropic foundations across Northeast Ohio formed to foster regional economic development.
The grant will help BioEnterprise bolster its efforts to make Northeast Ohio a major national player in the bioscience industry and be viewed as a peer to other strong bioscience regions, like North Carolina's Research Triangle and greater Minneapolis. BioEnterprise, working in close collaboration with the institutions' technology transfer offices, provides management counsel, business development, clinical collaboration and capital introduction services to promising bioscience opportunities developed in or attracted to Northeast Ohio.
"BioEnterprise has proven that it's driving high-wage, high-growth economic development in the region," said Denise Zeman, president of the Saint Luke's Foundation of Cleveland who represents The Fund For Our Economic Future as a board observer to BioEnterprise. "It's a prime example of the type of organizations that The Fund wants to support - those that demonstrate real potential to transform our regional economy."
Northeast Ohio Becoming Bioscience Hub
According to Baiju Shah, BioEnterprise president, the number of dollars invested in bioscience development in Northeast Ohio has nearly doubled since 2003 - growing from $32 million in 2003 to $61 million in 2004 - while nationally, investment in the biosciences remained flat. Shah said that $60 million of an anticipated $100 million has already been invested in the bioscience industry in Northeast Ohio so far this year. As much as $200 million will be invested annually by 2007 - a level at par with major bioscience regions across the country. Further, the number of bioscience companies financed in Northeast Ohio has grown from five in 2001 to 21 in 2004, a key indicator of the growing pipeline of companies in Northeast Ohio.
"Those numbers put us ahead of many other regions nationally," said Shah. "In the Midwest, Northeast Ohio is becoming a nexus for bioscience inventors, entrepreneurs and capital, much like Minneapolis. What's more, we're beginning to see the positive impact those investments are making on our communities."
Companies helped by BioEnterprise spent about $35 million last year in the region and generated $19 million in sales revenues. Shah said the additional funding would help accelerate that pace. "We're extremely grateful to The Fund for its continued support of the biosciences in our region," Shah said.
Thomas F. Zenty III, chairman of BioEnterprise and president and CEO of University Hospitals Health System, said the grant signifies that the collaboration is working.
"The increasing collaboration between the region's leading medical institutions is great for the advancement of healthcare and for the well-being of Northeast Ohio's communities," said Zenty. "The success of BioEnterprise has made it a model for other collaborative efforts, like the Wright Centers and the Comprehensive Cancer Center, that have a profound and far-reaching impact on medical innovations and the economy."
The Fund For Our Economic Future will award the grant over two years, with $1.5 million granted this year and $1.25 million given next year. It is the second grant awarded to BioEnterprise by The Fund, which gave $900,000 to BioEnterprise last year.
Additional Grant Funds Regional Public Engagement Initiative
In addition to the grant to BioEnterprise, The Fund approved a $1.4 million grant for AmericaSpeaks, a non-profit organization that will engage tens of thousands of citizens and leaders across Northeast Ohio in deliberation and dialogue to create a shared action agenda for revitalizing the economy. The program, called Voices & Choices, will be an 18-month initiative that will include leadership forums and large town hall meetings, as well as small discussion groups. The program will launch this summer with the first major event occurring in the fall.
The $1.4 million is the second grant given to AmericaSpeaks, with $315,000 awarded to the organization earlier this year. The Fund anticipates awarding a third grant of approximately $1.3 million later this year, for a total of $3 million for Voices & Choices.
With the new grants to BioEnterprise and AmericaSpeaks, The Fund has awarded nearly $16 million in grants to advance its economic development agenda. Of that amount, about $14 million has been dedicated to economic development intermediaries. Previous recipients include NorTech, a coalition of businesses, universities and research institutions committed to driving economic development in the technology sector ($2.25 million); Jumpstart, which provides investment and business development expertise to early-stage entrepreneurial ventures ($2.5 million); and Team NEO, a collaboration of regional business organizations promoting business attraction, expansion, and retention in Northeast Ohio counties ($2.5 million).
About The Fund For Our Economic Future
The Fund For Our Economic Future is an unprecedented collaboration among nearly 70 philanthropic organizations from across Northeast Ohio. Its goal is to encourage and advance an agenda for regional economic transformation using a three-tiered approach - grant making, public engagement and ongoing research to measure economic progress throughout the region. Launched in February 2004 as a three-year initiative, The Fund has raised more than $26 million of an anticipated $30 million to further its objectives. The Fund's Web site is www.futurefundneo.org.