About the Project
The Lowcountry Partnership for Biomedical Innovation is a project funded by Partnerships for Innovation Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF, grant IIP-917987). This award to the College of Charleston has the potential to change the face of biomedical commercialization in Charleston, South Carolina and the Lowcountry. The overall goal is to apply existing research on entrepreneurial individuals and teams to improve the potential for success of biotechnology start-up companies. This project brings together faculty from three universities, various public economic development entities, a biotechnology incubator facility, and a group of public/private sector partners. The result is a complete program designed to produce sustainable companies whose long-term success will provide good jobs for the future while their product innovations improve the national health and the national well-being.
Through the Lowcountry Partnership for Biomedical Innovation (LPBI), the College of Charleston will foster commercialization of basic and applied research conducted at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). MUSC has recently inaugurated the development of a biomedical technology incubator with the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) and the City of Charleston. The objective of this facility, the Charleston Innovation Center, is to create a critical mass of new biomedical companies around which a larger biomedical research and commercialization effort can coalesce.
The commercialization rate of companies participating in the incubator can be improved by a specific application of the business skills and entrepreneurial training needed to help ensure survival and growth of the target companies. This training will be provided by the College of Charleston in a manner that builds directly on prior work by the University of Louisville, another institutional partner on the project.
Because the LPBI is supported by NSF, it is important to note that any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.