This award is to Montgomery College Rockville to support the activity described below for 36 months. The proposal was submitted in response to the Partnerships for Innovation Program Solicitation (NSF-03521).
Partners The partners include Montgomery College Rockville (Lead Institution), University of Maryland College Park, Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, MedImmune, Celera, RRD International, GenVec, Bio Reliance, Toucan Capital, and Emerging Technology Partners.
This project seeks to ensure constant generation of well-educated and highly trained scientists, technicians, entrepreneurs for a scientifically and technologically literate workforce capable of enabling the growth and competitiveness of the regional biotechnology industry. The effort seeks to develop a world-class biotechnology education and training program that will serve all levels of the education continuum, maximize the synergy between academia and the businesses in the biotech sector in the region, integrate the education programs with the biosciences business park and incubator, increase the participation of underrepresented groups in the biotech workforce in the region, and track the participation and success rates of students and industry.
Potential Economic Impact The biotechnology industry in the United States has doubled in size in the last decade. The global public companies generated revenues of $35 billion, spent $16 billion I research and development, and employed more that 175,000 people in 2001. More that 70% of the revenues were generated in the United States. Most of these companies are clustered geographically where there are academic institutions, a technologically literate workforce and (sometimes) federal government research laboratories. The Maryland region surrounding Montgomery College has a biotechnology cluster that will continue to need a well-educated workforce to remain competitive.
The intellectual merit of the activity lies in creation of an integrated education partnership to provide a workforce from K-12 through advanced degrees, which will provide a workforce that remains at the stat-of-the-art in this rapidly evolving biotechnology sector.
The proposed consortium broadens the participation of different types of educational and research institutions and an even more diverse population of students in the biotechnology workforce.
