What's your role with the Jordan Valley Innovation Center and MSU?
Jordan Valley Innovation Center has actually got three centers inside of it: the Center for Applied Science and Engineering; the Center for Biomedical and Life Sciences; and Springfield Innovation Inc. CASE is led by Matt Curry, CBLS is led by Dr. Paul Durham, and Allen Kunkel heads Springfield Innovation Inc. Then Dr. (Ryan) Giedd is the executive director of the whole Jordan Valley Innovation Center, and (he) reports to me. (I'm responsible for) Ozarks Public Television - broadcast services; all the China programs. And the Community and Social Institute and the Department of Homeland Security fall under me.
How do innovation, life sciences and technology fit into MSU's big picture?
The industries that have the biggest impact on this region are agriculture, health care and education, and it turns out that agriculture and health care really are core components of what people refer to as life sciences. ... From an economic development standpoint, for Springfield to be competitive and be able to recruit industry and business ... we have to have expertise in this area. ... We need to start training our students so they have an opportunity to compete for some of the really good jobs that are emerging in the life sciences. And we also want to be able to keep some of those bright kids in Springfield.
What kinds of jobs do you expect in the life sciences sector?
The primary job creator is still health care. ... The good jobs that are coming out of all this are in the development of new kinds of biomedical devices, new kinds of medications (and) surgical procedures. ... The jobs that are emerging are highly skilled jobs that require quite a bit of education, and they pay very well. ... The issue is that (JVIC) is a technology accelerator, and we're helping companies try to get products out the door, and the number of jobs created is not really high. ... Now, if a product really takes off, and you ... start to manufacture, that's where the jobs are created. ... That's where the whole concept of IDEA Commons came into place.
Tell us more about IDEA Commons.
There are a couple of purposes for IDEA Commons. One is to continue to stimulate development downtown. ... We want to create an environment that's like an urban research park, highly desirable for high-tech companies to come to Springfield. ... The quality of life is very good. The labor force is very attractive. I've talked to some companies ... and they're really impressed with the Midwest work ethic. We're trying to create an area that's interesting. ... People want to be around artistic things, good restaurants, et cetera.
Tell us more about the Springfield Center for Excellence in Life Sciences.
The Life Sciences board will send out requests for proposals - and this year, there's about $13.4 million available - and we get letters of intent. ... Any (research project requests) that come out of the Springfield area (go to) our advisory board. This year we had 15 letters of intent submitted. ... Out of the 15, 10 were recommended to submit a full proposal. The full proposals go back to the ... Life Sciences Research Board, which sends all proposals off to an external review group. There may be 70 to 80 proposals from around the state, and they rank them (for) the Life Sciences Research Board, which ultimately decides which (project) proposals get funded.
How does southwest Missouri compete against other regions in Missouri?
What's happening in southwest Missouri and the state is that life sciences are very much a cluster-oriented type of enterprise. ... Kansas City has ... all kinds of animal feed and medicine and veterinary stuff. And in St. Louis, they've got the bio belt. ... Springfield is an emerging player. It doesn't have the same infrastructure that St. Louis and Kansas City do, plus the University of Missouri-Columbia has got a tremendous infrastructure in life sciences. ... JVIC was one of the first steps that we wanted to take to try to improve our competitiveness in life sciences. If you put the agriculture and the health care and all that together, life sciences are a big deal in southwest Missouri ... but when it comes to the basic research and technology, we're pretty new to the game.[[In-content Ad]]
