A bill being floated in the Legislature would alocate $7.5 million to a series of economic development projects for the biohealth industry.
MADISON (WKOW) — A group of Wisconsin companies, organizations and institutions are working to secure tens of millions of dollars of federal investment in the biohealth industry from the federal government, and they want the state to chip in as well.
A bill being floated in the Legislature would allocate $7.5 million to a series of economic development projects.
At the end of October, Wisconsin was designated as a Tech Hub by the Economic Development Administration (EDA), a distinction that came with between $50 and $75 million to spur growth of the state’s biohealth industry.
Now, leaders of Wisconsin’s tech hub consortium are focused on a looming Feb. 29 deadline to apply for a second phase of funding from the federal government.
The EDA estimates that between five and 10 of the 31 tech hubs across the country will qualify for phase two status.
Those hubs would qualify for additional grants from the EDA that could total as much as $150 million, when including phase one funds.
BioForward CEO Lisa Johnson wants Wisconsin to take control of its future by pursuing these funds.
“This tech hub gives us that opportunity to define ourselves, and not let anybody else define who we are,” she said.
Johnson is helping lead the charge for Wisconsin’s consortium which includes UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
“Our proposal has to be built around projects, we will have approximately eight we are submitting,” Johnson said. “And they are in the categories of workforce supply chain, technology, and entrepreneurship.”
But she has to be careful about giving further details.
“It’s like a football coach handing over his playbook to the other coach and going, ‘Hey, here’s everything we’re doing,'” she said.
Thirty other tech hubs are competing with Wisconsin for the federal money. Johnson knows they are watching Wisconsin as much as Wisconsin is watching them.
“We read their narratives from phase one,” she said. “We heard some of them talk. We looked at their press releases.”
A bill floated by lawmakers in the state Legislature for co-sponsorship this week to match some of the phase two federal dollars offers some hints.
The bill would fund three projects. The first is “a clinical work flow and supply chain support center for image-guided therapies and theragnostic,” per a summary from the Legislative Reference Bureau.
It would, if passed, expand Forward BIOLABS in Madison, a coworking space for sciences companies. Coworking facilities often help incubate startups. The bill would also help support a new BIOLABS location in Milwaukee.
The proposal also contains provisions “to develop apprenticeship programs” and provide “support for manufacturing and supply chain companies in Wisconsin,” according to the Legislative Reference Bureau.
Johnson is pushing hard to get the bill passed before the application deadline to help bolster Wisconsin’s submission.
“This industry (biohealth) is about the state of Wisconsin,” she said. “Let’s go compete, let’s get this thing passed.”
