Gaston College, serving as administrative agent for a broad coalition of eight regional community colleges and their Small Business Centers, announces it has recently received a grant of $48,444 from the North Carolina Community College Systems BioNetwork.

The eight community colleges in the Charlotte Region's 12 counties (Alexander, Anson, Cabarrus, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Stanly, Union) have been working together and with the BioNetwork for a number of years to develop courses and programs to train their displaced mill and factory workforce for jobs in bioprocessing and biomanufacturing. But each of these colleges also supports a Small Business Center that can either help the small business owner and/or entrepreneur to work alongside the innovators and product inventors or to provide the kind of ancillary goods and services, like packaging and shipping, that deliver new biotech products to markets.

“The project grant will fund Phase II of an ongoing collaboration that began last year,” says Brad Rivers, director of the Small Business Center (SBC) at Gaston College.

“The goals of the project are simple. We are joining together to identify and tap the potential for the biotechnology and life sciences industries in the Charlotte Region, in order to help small business owners take fullest advantage of the economic opportunities.”

As he explains it, Phase I of the SBC collaboration was successfully accomplished by conducting extensive research to identify and survey businesses that were either actively engaged in biotechnology and life science processes or had the capacity to support that work. That phase was coordinated by Central Piedmont Community College. Phase II will be coordinated by Gaston College and will build on the earlier work by consolidating and marketing all the resources the eight SBC’s and the BioNetwork have at their disposal.

Based on the report that the SBC’s published as Phase I, there is a growing presence of biotechnology and life sciences firms in the region. According to Gaston College President Pat Skinner, Ph.D., there are a number of the economic and demographic factors that are contributing to this. “The Charlotte Region has a lot to offer,” she said. “Even our housing market is viable. We’re continually attracting new businesses and residents. Plus, once the

North Carolina Research Center in Kannapolis opens, it will be supporting the research initiatives for major universities—including UNC Charlotte—that will drive innovative products and create new industries.

“What this project recognizes,” Skinner goes on to say, “is that the community colleges can play an exciting role beyond their traditional workforce-training. Our Small Business Center can nurture and support entrepreneurs and small businesses so they can evolve along with these bigger biotech firms.”

As an outcome of the Phase II grant, focus-group findings, survey results, and other information-sharing activities will be used to develop a business plan to staff and support a centrally located SBC specifically for biotech and life science business and industry.

In the short-term, though, as Brad Rivers points out, the collaboration functions as a "virtual" Charlotte Region BioBusiness Hub. Its web page and print materials will be accessible to all of the region's Small Business Center and Economic Development directors to help them coordinate and sustain their current efforts.

For more information about this project or community college Small Business Centers, contact Brad Rivers at 704-922-6449, or by email at rivers.brad@gaston.edu.