WNC Final Report

The Steering Committee to Strengthen Biotechnology in Western North Carolina A Project of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and Western North Carolina Partners Biotechnology Fits Nicely Eleven Imperatives for Western North Carolina Report of The Steering Committee to Strengthen Biotechnology in Western North Carolina spring 2002 “We will decades from now look back on this initiative as one of the most important and prescient for Western North Carolina’s Economic Development.” The Honorable Martin Lancaster • President, North Carolina Community College System Biotechnology Fits Nicely Eleven Imperatives for Western North Carolina Report of The Steering Committee to Strengthen Biotechnology in Western North Carolina Directing the sciences and applications of biotechnology to economic and cultural benefit throughout Western North Carolina in coming years is a task as challenging as important. Addressing the task proved to be welcome, interesting, and remarkably instructive for members of The Steering Committee to Strengthen Biotechnology in Western North Carolina and for those diverse persons who so well contributed to its work. We convey with pride this Report on the work and recommendations of the Committee. John W. Bardo Mr. W. Steven Burke Committee Chair Committee Vice Chair Chancellor, Senior Vice President, Western Carolina University Corporate Affairs and External Relations, North Carolina Biotechnology Center Report of the Steering Committee to Strengthen Biotechnology in Western North Carolina Members, The Steering Committee to Strengthen Biotechnology in Western North Carolina Mr. Ray Bailey President • Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College John W. Bardo Chancellor • Western Carolina University Mr. George Briggs Executive Director • The N.C. Arboretum Mr. Robert F. Burgin President and CEO • Mission St. Joseph’s Health System Mr. W. Steven Burke Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs and External Relations • North Carolina Biotechnology Center Mr. Dale Carroll President and CEO • Advantage West The Honorable Charles Carter Senator • North Carolina General Assembly Mr. John F.A.V. Cecil President • Biltmore Farms Dennis Depew, Ph.D. Dean, College of Applied Sciences • Western Carolina University Charles E. Hamner, DVM, PhD President and Chief Executive Officer • North Carolina Biotechnology Center Mr. Thomas E. McClure Director, Office of Regional Affairs • Western Carolina University The Honorable Stephen Metcalf Senator • North Carolina General Assembly James H. Mullen, Jr., Ph.D. Chancellor • University of North Carolina at Asheville Mr. Teck Penland President and CEO • MAHEC Mr. Frank E. Taylor President & CEO • Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory 3 spring 2002 Report of the Steering Committee to Strengthen Biotechnology in Western North Carolina Contents 6 Project Premise 7 Committee Approach 7 Learning and Meetings 9 Imperative 1 Targeted Application of Biotechnology Can Preserve and Improve the Quality of Life in Western North Carolina in Varied Ways, Including Strengthening of the Area’s Economy and of Individual Incomes 11 Imperative 2 Targeted and Integrated Programs for Education and Workforce Training are Required 13 Imperative 3 The Sciences and Applications of Biotechnology Can be Applied to the Environmental and Conservation Benefit of Western North Carolina 14 Imperative 4 The Sciences and Applications of Biotechnology Can Be Applied to the Health Benefit of Western North Carolina 15 Imperative 5 The Biotechnology Incubation and Training Center Provides an Extraordinarily Rich Foundation and Focus, and Should Be Funded, Developed, and Utilized 16 Imperative 6 Increased Clinical Trials Activities Can be Targeted and Supported, in Particular Those Directed to Therapeutics 17 Imperative 7 A Biomanufacturing Capability is Well Worthy of Exploration 18 Imperative 8 Traditional and Alternative Indigenous Agriculture, Forestry and Horticulture Products Important to Western North Carolina Can Be Appropriately Targeted 20 Imperative 9 New Strategies and Responses for an Unfolding Technology Must be Anticipated — and Acted Upon — in Coming Years 21 Imperative 10 Partnerships Realistic in Goals and Drawn Across Geography Are Required 23 Imperative 11 Sustained Direction and Leadership Over the Next Decade Are Unequivocally Necessary for an Effective Western North Carolina Biotechnology Initiative 24 Meeting Speakers 5 spring 2002 Report of the Steering Committee to Strengthen Biotechnology in Western North Carolina Project Premise The sciences and applications of biotechnology can over time yield benefit to the economic, academic, cultural, and environmental life of Western North Carolina. A group of Western North Carolina leaders began in early 2001 to consider this reasonable premise. How might it be explored? How might benefits be gained in both the short- and long-term? How can diverse vantage points — urban and rural, economic and public interest, policy and environmental — be somehow accommodated, and brought into appropriate balance? How can an area not traditionally directed to technology effectively incorporate it into planning, resources, and vision? How can vision meet the challenging reality of technological development? Undaunted and in fact soundly inspired by the challenge, the leaders moved soon from idea to plan. Working cohesively with senior staff from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Research Triangle Park, the group laid out a methodology and framework. Building from a core group and from the initial catalysts so key to any visionary endeavor — Mr. Jack Cecil, Dr. John Bardo, Dr. Jim Mullen, Mr. George Briggs — The Steering Committee to Strengthen Biotechnology in Western North Carolina was established in March of 2001. The task of the Committee was as ambitious as clear: draft a strategic plan for application of biotechnology to Western North Carolina. The Committee recognized early that seven imperatives necessarily shaped its task and approach: 1 • A thoughtful and detailed analysis of resources, participants, and appropriate areas of application was required. 2 • The specific resources and capabilities of Western North Carolina must be built upon, including in particular target niche markets, niche areas of science and research, and niche resources. 3 • Biotechnology could yield an effective tool for community development, broader in impact and more progressive in intent than traditional economic development. 4 • Guiding recommendations and strategies must address both the short and long terms. 5 • Appropriate and realistic attention must be paid to both rural and urban outcomes. 6 • Effective and thoughtful development of biotechnology requires balanced attention simultaneously to four areas: science, industry, economic outcomes, as well as attendant societal, environmental, public, and policy issues. 7 • Imagination, partnership, and sustained attention would be required over time. Committee members were briefed early by partners from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the private non-profit corporation established by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1984 to catalyze the State’s long-term commitment to biotechnology. Center staff outlined the process, strategies, and issues of biotechnology development, and informed the group about the manifest value of North Carolina’s sustained attention to the technology. Because that commitment over the past two decades has gained the state a richly comprehensive biotechnology community and enviable reputation as a place for thoughtful biotechnology development, a foundation is in place for committed attention in the Western counties of North Carolina. spring 2002 6 Report of the Steering Committee to Strengthen Biotechnology in Western North Carolina Committee Approach Biotechnology — complex, broad in applications and needed resources, and wide in definition — must be brought to manageable focus. Accordingly, the Committee shaped its learning and public meetings under five key topic areas. In total, these headings provided a useful and appropriate framework through which to consider targeted application of biotechnology in Western North Carolina: Agriculture How can the technology offer gain to crops, growers, and processors important to the area? Health How can the technology support or enrich the health care endeavor created by area hospitals, companies, and service providers? Manufacturing How can biomanufacturing and related activities be targeted as strengths and offerings? Training and Support How can the area develop the specialized workforce so increasingly in demand by companies and facilities, and so central to their location decisions? Environment and Culture What factors — ecological, cultural, institutional, or behavioral — specific to this place clearly impel or possibly constrain targeted attention to biotechnology? Learning and Meetings The Steering Committee held three public meetings, each addressing key topic areas as well as other appropriate information. Each meeting combined discussion with presentations from content area leaders, external as well as from the Committee itself. A fourth meeting of the Steering Committee reviewed information, ideas, and possibilities from those three meetings, yielding a feasible approach for shaping the technology to the resources, economy, and culture of Western North Carolina — the imperatives that follow. The richly diverse roster of meeting presenters — representing varied content, planning, and resource areas — is included at the end of this

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