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S.C. companies need to chip in for university research

Submitted by: John Warner on Nov 02, 2003 at 6:00 am Tagged with: General Archives Source:

S.C. companies need to chip in for university research
Grant Jackson
The State

Here is a chance for South Carolina businesses to put their money where their
mouth is about education in the state.
The S.C. Legislature has set aside $60 million from lottery proceeds in 2003
and 2004 to create endowed chairs at the state's major research universities —
USC, Clemson and the Medical University of South Carolina.
Research will be aimed at things that can lead to well-paying jobs for the
state.
But the plan depends upon matching money from business. BMW has pledged $10
million to Clemson for an automotive research project, and a few pledges have
been made to other chairs. But much remains to be done.
''The time is now for the business community to step up,'' said John Warner, who
is helping lead an effort to bring businesses together. Warner, a vice
president of Simpsonville-based Kemet, also is chairman of the S.C. Chamber of
Commerce's technology committee.
The chamber, S.C. Department of Commerce, Carolina Crescent Coalition and the
state's research universities want to mobilize S.C.'s business community to
action.
Through Centers of Economic Excellence Forums, those groups aim to create a
broad base of business support to fund the first two years of the endowed
chairs program. They also want more discussions between the business community
and the research universities.
The idea for the forums started with Warner, who also founded the Carolina
Crescent Coalition, a collaborative effort to bring business and higher
education together to work on mutually beneficial projects.
What the chamber, the department of commerce and the coalition are trying to do
is ''leverage the business community,'' said Randy Bradley, a state chamber vice
president who is working with the forums.
The forums will be regional meetings modeled after the state chamber's
successful Grass-Roots legislative meetings.
Bradley expects a minimum of three meetings — Charleston, Greenville and
Columbia — to be held in January and February. For the Research Centers of
Economic Excellence program to be successful, the forums need to help research
universities find the matching funds for those endowed chairs that have already
been approved and to establish a long-term dialogue on future needs.
The first objective of the forums is to educate people about the endowed chairs
program and why it is important, Warner said.
''The second objective is to actually raise the money'' for the matches, he said.
Business people can come to the forums to hear what chairs the universities are
proposing and see how the research might help their business and the state.
Corporate leaders also will have a chance to talk about what kinds of research
they would like to see undertaken.
S.C. businesses need to look at the endowed chair programs from two
perspectives, both of which stem from enlightened self- interest:
• How research generated through an endowed chair can directly benefit them. A
USC chair in nanotechnology, for example, may spin off research to help
advanced manufacturing industry.
• How research can create new industries and bring more wealth into the state.
Life sciences chairs at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston,
for example, could create new biotechnology companies in the state.
Not all of the endowed chairs are likely to have private partners in the state,
where a company or industry sees a direct benefit. Some will have to be funded
through private philanthropy.
For chairs without private partners, Warner hopes the state chamber will put
together a plan that eventually could spin off companies.
''Let's be proactive about it. We just can't sit back and hope it happens,'' he
said.
But helping fund research — even when it does not benefit a specific industry —
makes good sense.
Research by itself is big business, and it pays very well, says Sam Tennenbaum,
a retired local steel executive who has been a driving force behind the endowed
chairs program.
Tennenbaum points out that in 1999, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore
pulled in $770 million in research grants.
A report from the University of Kentucky says that in 2002, research grants and
contracts from out-of-state sources resulted in a $433.3 million contribution
to the state's economy, including $142.7 million in personal income.
While there has been some frustration that the funding for the endowed chairs
program has not come more quickly, Warner says he is not particularly concerned.
''I'm encouraged by what I have seen. ... Twenty-four months ago this
legislation hadn't even passed.
''I'll take where we are, given where we came from, and we'll spend the next 12
months trying to ratchet it up a little higher.''