Grant to UA will be used to prepare nascent biomanufacturing workforce
by September 28, 2023 10:19 am 680 views
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) has awarded a $493,521 grant to the University of Arkansas to train new workers for Arkansas’ growing biomanufacturing sector. The UA shared the details in a news release Thursday (Sept. 28).
According to the release, the money will support developing and implementing free online and hybrid biomanufacturing curricula and credentialing to facilitate biomanufacturing workforce training in Arkansas.
The UA was one of 11 winners of a national competition that “supports programs to train science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) talent and fuel regional innovation economies across the nation,” according to the EDA. Other recipients spanned the country from California to Massachusetts.
The $4.5 million competition provides up to $500,000 in funding for programs that complement their region’s innovation economy, create pathways to good-paying STEM careers and build talent pipelines for businesses to fill in-demand jobs in emerging and transformative sectors, the announcement said.
Tara Dryer, senior managing director of the University of Arkansas Global Campus Professional and Workforce Development, and Tobias Teeter, director of the Collaborative — the UA education and research presence established in Bentonville in 2021 to catalyze the state’s innovation ecosystem — are co-principal investigators of the $1 million project that requires matching funds from the UA.
The Professional and Workforce Development office is housed in the Collaborative, where the proposed virtual reality-enabled biomanufacturing workforce development center will be located.
“I am beyond excited about this announcement and look forward to working with my colleague Tobias Teeter on this project,” Dryer said. “We are committed to strengthening the Arkansas workforce through skills training to serve in-demand industries.”
UA officials are working with Bentonville-based investment firm Symbiosis to bring biomanufacturing jobs to Arkansas Founded in 2021, SymBiosis is a venture capital investment firm with several of its leadership team and long-term investors living in Northwest Arkansas, including managing partner Chidozie Ugwumba.
The firm invests in groundbreaking medicines across disease areas, financing stages and geography, with a focus on programs in or about to enter human trials. It manages a portfolio of more than 30 investments and has significant, long-term capital commitments to fund future investments.
“We are thrilled that the U of A has received this generous grant to train new workers for Arkansas’ growing biomanufacturing sector,” Ugwumba said. “In the coming years, we expect innovative companies will come to our state to benefit from the skilled biomanufacturing professionals this program will produce.”
Teeter said the UA and Symbiosis worked together for the past year to identify biomanufacturing as a hyper-growth industry with high wages for upskilled workers. Biomanufacturing encompasses the scale-up of processes that permit the consistent production of biological products at a commercial scale.
“So, how do you introduce a new industry to an entire state?” Teeter said. “Fortunately, we have a Bentonville-based VC firm making early-stage investments in biomanufacturing. Those startups will be seeking contract biomanufacturers to produce products at scale. With a commitment to market, train, and certify workforce, perhaps we can attract these large-scale employers to Arkansas.”
Teeter said he and Dryer recently toured a facility in College Station, Texas, where low-skilled workers gained biomanufacturing training and microcredentials in just 2 to 3 weeks, then stepped into jobs paying $60,000 annually.