Biotech in North Carolina Gets $64.5M Boost

More workers in North Carolina will be trained for jobs in biotechnology, thanks to the Golden LEAF Foundation's recent $60 million commitment to the emerging industry. In all, $64.5 million is going toward a training initiative, with North Carolina's biotech industry expected to contribute $4.5 million.

Golden LEAF (Long-term Economic Advancement Foundation), created in 1999 as a nonprofit corporation, receives one-half of the funds coming to North Carolina from its settlement with tobacco companies. The Foundation's mission is to help the state transition out of a tobacco-based economy while creating new jobs in tobacco-dependent areas.

As part of the biotech initiative, North Carolina State University in Raleigh will receive $36 million to build and equip a center to train workers. North Carolina Central University in Durham will receive $19.1 million to establish graduate and undergraduate degree programs in biotechnology. The remaining $9.4 million will go to the State Community College System to implement training programs in local communities, serving as a feeder system to NC State and North Carolina Central.

"It will allow biomanufacturing, pharmaceutical and other biotech-related companies to locate or expand in any area of North Carolina and know they will have immediate access to skilled workers with training in state-of-the-art technologies and manufacturing processes," Sam Taylor, Executive Vice President of the North Carolina BioSciences Organization, said of the initiative.

More information on Golden LEAF is available at: http://www.goldenleaf.org/