Business Incubator a key component of high-tech development strategy
As Columbia builds a technology-led economic-development strategy, many see a key component falling into place: a business incubator to support the development of early-stage technology companies linked to the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Construction started May 18 on the MU Life Science Business Incubator, which is scheduled to open in September 2008. The 33,000-square-foot facility is under construction on a 2.5-acre site off Providence Road near the MU Research Reactor.
A business incubator provides specialized lab space and other support facilities to early-stage companies. In Columbia’s case, the focus will be on meeting the needs of biotechnology and other life-science companies.
“The challenge in Columbia is translating all of the great research from the university into marketable technology,” said Gene Gerke, a Columbia management consultant who has been involved with discussions about building an incubator since 1989. “Having the incubator is one of the key components.”
Jake Halliday, executive director of the Missouri Innovation Center, which will manage the incubator, said its completion is the product of many years of hard work and the cooperation of federal, state, local and MU officials. Efforts to build a business incubator started in the early 1990s, but the essential pieces and partners were not able to come together until the last few years.
“The current effort began in 2004,” Halliday said. “It took us until October 2006 to put all of the pieces together.”
The Missouri Innovation Center has led the initiative to build an incubator for more than a decade. “It took a long time, but we’ve gotten to this point because all of the players are finally working together and supporting a shared economic development mission,” Halliday said.
Funding for the $9 million facility comes from three large categories: $3 million from federal grants, $3 million from MU and $2 million from Monsanto, a multinational agriculture biotechnology company. The remainder of the funding comes from the City of Columbia and private-sector sources.
“The state of Missouri did not directly provide funding,” Halliday said, mentioning that part of the funding for the incubator was originally supposed to come from the sale of Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) assets, but the funding was stricken during the 2007 session of the Missouri Legislature. “But the state did provide tax credits for private contributors, and that was a huge boost to our effort.”
“I see the incubator as a vehicle to build a new economy in the mid-Missouri area,” said Greg Steinhoff, director of Missouri’s Department of Economic Development. “This is one of the best opportunities in the state to do that.”
Halliday said the incubator will be filled with early-stage companies that fit one of two categories: those arising from MU and those that choose to move to Columbia to take advantage of the university’s resources, such as faculty research, the MU Research Reactor Center and the university’s new cyclotron at the reactor center. (A cyclotron is a type of advanced particle accelerator that helps scientists working to develop radiopharmaceutical drugs and helps supply compounds needed in medical diagnostic procedures.)
Don Laird, president of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, said he expects his organization to be a referral source for early-stage companies, both inside and outside Columbia, that are looking for specialized life-science facilities.
“We get a tremendous number of calls from businesses who need help getting started,” Laird said. “I expect some will be ready to refer to the incubator. I’m very excited because the incubator will complement so many of the economic-development efforts currently taking place.”
“The incubator is one more component of the economic development strategy we are seeing develop in Columbia,” Halliday said. “I think we’ll see an organized effort to promote Columbia and the whole economic development package we offer, including the incubator, the university, investor groups and the new research park, Discovery Ridge.”
In the long run, Halliday said, the impact will be to start the process of having a high-technology sector in the Columbia economy.
“For years, we have been overly dependent on the fortunes of the university,” Halliday said of Columbia. “The incubator will be one of the things that will allow us to get more value out of the university. It will provide more options for the commercialization of the technology the university produces.”
“The entire goal of the incubator is to proactively create new ventures that stay here in central Missouri, using the technology coming out of the university to create better, higher-paying jobs that can support our quality of life here,” Halliday said.
Chip Cooper, Halliday’s predecessor and executive director of the Missouri Innovation Center for more than a decade, has been a booster for the incubator since the early 1990s. He is concerned that the leaders of the developing technology-led economic-development strategy be given time—lots of it—to build a sustainable program.
“We can’t have unrealistic expectations,” Cooper said. “The players have a massive mountain to climb, and the incubator is not going to make it happen alone. This is a 50-year project.”
“We need to have a realistic view of how long this is going to take and what the challenges will be,” Cooper continued. “If we don’t, then the people who are making things happen will not be given the opportunity to succeed. If we do this right, in the long run there will be a big pay-off for Columbia and the state.”