NCBiotech: Steadfast commitment to growing life sciences
G2G Consulting provides comprehensive government affairs, public relations, and economic development services to businesses and nonprofits, including the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBiotech). We have enjoyed partnering with the NCBiotech team to educate the U.S. Congress and the Executive Branch on the vital life sciences work taking place in North Carolina and to strengthen the biotechnology ecosystem in the state. We have seen first-hand how NCBiotech’s steadfast commitment to and passion for growing life sciences innovation and businesses across North Carolina allows the state to be a true leader and a model other states hope to replicate.
We need to look back to 1984, the year the NC General Assembly created NCBiotech as the nation’s first state-sponsored, nonprofit dedicated to biotechnology development, to truly understand how North Carolina has cultivated the ecosystem of research universities, business climate, and workforce needed to become a world-renowned life sciences cluster. The following examples of NCBiotech activity demonstrate the impact this critical entity has had during the past couple of years alone.
NCBiotech’s leadership and commitment to collaborating with the government and the life sciences community in North Carolina has driven significant progress since we began working together a few years ago. A good example is NCBiotech’s interest in leveraging the strong and shared commitment of NCBiotech and North Carolina’s senators to support biodefense activities of the state’s impressive military complex. By partnering with U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and former U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, NCBiotech secured an $825,000 Congressionally Directed Spending project in 2022 for a life sciences workforce development program. This funding allowed NCBiotech to introduce a creative new and supplemental funding tool to help bridge the gap to a career in life sciences manufacturing for Fort Liberty transitioning services members, their families, and veterans.
North Carolina is home to more than 90,000 active-duty service members and more than 38,000 active-duty spouses. The Military Outreach and Veterans Engagement (MOVE) project will allow transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses to build upon the unique skills they’ve acquired in the military to obtain life sciences training at North Carolina community colleges. Once this training is complete, the MOVE project will connect these individuals with training internships and well-paying career opportunities. Importantly, our fast-growing life sciences manufacturing sector needs a highly qualified and committed talent pool as it expands domestic manufacturing capacity right here in North Carolina – a goal shared by our federal and state governments, as well as our industry partners. This innovative effort to connect the North Carolina military community, Veterans Service Organizations, and the life sciences industry in the state will build on a successful pilot program from 2019 and ensure that long-lasting opportunities are available to those who sacrificed so much for our nation.
NCBiotech also recently partnered with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, community colleges, and industry partners to secure a $25 million award from the U.S. Department of Commerce to strengthen the North Carolina life sciences manufacturing cluster by developing a robust pipeline of talent across the state and expanding opportunities for those in distressed and underserved communities. This is just one example of how NCBiotech’s purposeful attention to developing a healthy life sciences ecosystem over the past 40 years has fortified the resiliency of this critical sector of the economy.
G2G and NCBiotech regularly educate the White House and federal agencies on the North Carolina bioeconomy, success stories, and challenges. Through this engagement, we provide decision-makers at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Labor, and other Executive Branch entities with on-the-ground information to help inform their vision for future programs and how the regulatory environment could be improved to enable more efficient and effective biotechnology product development, from innovation to the delivery of life-saving medicines and food to heal, fuel, and feed the world.
In support of the ongoing remarkable life sciences work happening across North Carolina, NCBiotech and G2G have invested in building relationships with each of our federal congressional offices. This allows us to regularly highlight the impact of North Carolina’s life sciences sector on the nation as a whole and to create meaningful, long-lasting change. Together, we pursue every opportunity to develop and strengthen relationships with folks on both sides of the political aisle to address challenges for North Carolina biotech innovators and to maximize the impact such innovators have.
The life sciences ecosystem in North Carolina would not be what it is today without the dedicated and talented individuals working at NCBiotech over the past 40 years. We are honored to partner with this team to ensure that North Carolina remains a global life sciences leader in the years and decades ahead.
Christopher Cooper is government affairs director for G2G Consulting.