Building Bioscience Talent

Preparing, attracting and retaining the talent Northeast Ohio's growing companies is a key objective of Advance Northeast Ohio and recently Rep. Ralph Regula helped give the region a big boost in that area. Regula secured a $500,000 federal planning grant to an Ashland-based consortium of businesses and educational institutions with the purpose of developing future workers for bioscience-related industries.

The following comes from a news release issued by the consortium:

“What a wonderful opportunity to strengthen the bioscience opportunities in Ashland County and the surrounding region. We truly thank Congressman Regula for this opportunity to shape the future in Northeast Ohio. There is just no denying the correlation between technology, education, and healthy economic development,” said Marla Akridge, Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce President.

The Ashland-based BioScience Consortium of Northeast Ohio received the one-year grant to help develop regional bioscience educational pathways such as medically-oriented sciences, devices and diagnostics, agricultural biotechnology, biomaterials and bioinformatics.

The Consortium, a seven-county partnership of more than 25 businesses, educational providers and nonprofit organizations, sought the grant based upon evidence that the biosciences will remain a strong regional and state industry. Ohio has twice the number of medical and clinical technicians as the national average, who regionally earn an average $15.80 per hour with related work experience and/or an associate degree.

Consortium members to date:
Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center
Ashland City School District
Aquarian Technology Systems, LTD
Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce
Ashland Area Council for Economic Development
Ashland, Medina & Wayne Counties Ohio Farm Bureau Federation
Ashland University
BioOhio (formerly Omeris - State Bioscience Edison Center)
Braintree (Edison Incubator)
Cleveland Clinic Foundation – Wooster
Clinical Research Management, Inc.
Crawford County Economic Development Department
Delta Plant Technologies
Detrow & Underwood
Lakeland Community College
Medina County Works
Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center
Mid-Ohio Heart Clinic
North Central Consortium of Ohio College Tech Prep
North Central State College
Nortech
Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OSU-Wooster)
Ohio Department of Development
Samaritan Regional Health System
Stark State College of Technology
PolymerOhio, Inc
Tri-County Educational Service Center
WIL Research Laboratories, LLC

This consortium is part of an expanding effort to increase the region's capacity to prepare residents to take advantage for the region being a global leader in the health care industry. Recently Cuyahoga County Community College recently received a state grant to develop a bioscience training program.