Photo by Cathy ChedrawiSince becoming executive director of the Georgetown-based Texas Life-sciences Collaboration Center, Michael Douglas has been seeking ways to bring high-wage jobs to Georgetown by recruiting biotechnology companies from throughout the nation.
This summer Douglas applied for an approximately $300,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to expand that search to South Korea, where companies are eager to break into the U.S. market and expand their presence in the U.S., he said.
The grant money is expected to be announced in mid-August.
This grant would fund the TLCC as a regional center to help support recruiting and growth of [South] Korean and Asian companies that are in the life-sciences [industry], Douglas said.
The companies being sought after are mainly device manufacturers that make products ranging from machines that measure health parameters to [medicated] patches. Douglas said the initiative began when investors in a South Korean company interested in joining the TLCC saw the centers support system for recruiting companies.
These [would be] companies that basically manufacture products and distribute them all over the world. They dont have much of a presence in the U.S., Douglas said. Its a two-phased approach that we are trying to address: [Phase 1] is to let them expand here and be in a position to put Made in the USA on their products, and the other [phase] is to help them with whatever requirements there are to get their products into the U.S. market.
Douglas said he has been working with entrepreneurs in South Korea who have helped recruit interested companies there while also working with various groups in the United States to make sure there is a place for those companies to set up.
There is strong interest in coming [to the TLCC], he said. Really we are in the position to pick the companies that we want to come. The issue is having a place for them to land.
If approved the federal grant funding would help support some building space and administration, he said.
Weve tried to set up some sort of glide path for when the companies come in, Douglas said. We work with the executives as they come in and help them understand what is here and what opportunities would be here for their children in [terms of] education.
Along with recruitment and building space the funding would help facilitate educational programs that would link South Korea to the United States through the Korean Education Ministry, he said.
Douglas said there was interest in creating an exchange program that would bring post-secondary students to the United States to work with companies in the TLCC and possibly allow students from the U.S. enrolled in courses at Austin Community College or Texas State Technical College to work with companies in South Korea.
The EDA grant is focused on assisting cities that need job creation, and Douglas said the grant would help bring jobs to northern Williamson County as well as neighboring Bell and McLennan counties.
Ultimately what we are trying to do is deliver jobs to the area, he said. The grant itself tends to focus on bringing companies into Williamson County and counties to the north of us, not to the south. It is an EDA grant that basically looks at trying to develop areas that need jobs. We may be recruiting companies to Georgetown that may not end up in the [TLCC]; they may be up by the airport manufacturing medical devices.
Georgetown Economic Development Director Mark Thomas said the TLCC is constantly building upon itself and that new business helps create momentum that will help recruiting and retention efforts.
Each thing that [the TLCC does] is ... one more piece of a positive offering that [the city has] been able to put together, Thomas said. [The EDA grant] in part becomes a marketing opportunity.
Douglas said the goal was to create the infrastructure to bring in a minimum of 500 high-wage manufacturing jobs and export $100 million annually in the first five years of the program.
These are all people who are coming here who are highly educated [South] Korean middle-class businesspeople, and they are going to bring jobs and wages here that will basically help the citys tax base, he said. I think the primary thing is it helps extend our life-science footprint and gives us the opportunity to establish something unique in a city our size.
Local funding
TLCC is in the running for a grant from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund to help pay for a training program for Austin Community College students in the biotechnology program. The grant would help fund the build-out of training and classroom space at the center with state-of-the-art telecommunications and computer equipment. The space would serve as a place for ACC faculty to teach and allow students to gain experience, TLCC Executive Director Michael Douglas said.
Those students in their biotechnology program will have the opportunity to come out and work at TLCC with member companies and gain first-hand experience in a manufacturing environment, he said, adding that the center has had a partnership with ACC for about four years. Weve probably had about 20 interns come through the program, and that has served as a model for this grant that we are going after.
The ETF grant could be announced in September, Douglas said. If approved, classroom space could be added to plans for the centers fourth building.
Texas Life-sciences Collaboration Center
111 Cooperative Way, Ste. 200
512-864-1891
