The OSU South Centers was included in a grant award in collaboration with Ohio University's $6.5 million Entrepreneurial Signature Program (ESP) proposal to drive local and regional entrepreneurship.  The award was approved yesterday after being presented to the Third Frontier Commission Board in a Columbus meeting.  South Centers is included in the amount of $2.1 million as sub-award within the overall award.  This funding will cover the 3 year time frame of the project.

This new funding will allow us to increase both the breadth and depth of our ongoing OSU South Centers Business Development Network. These new resources will assist companies in a 19 county region of Southeast Ohio move through the first phases of the Ohio Department of Development's technology commercialization process -- we will focus our efforts on six counties adjacent to Pike for this universal coverage. The process has five parts: imagining, incubating, demonstrating, market entry/growth and sustainability.

The award also will support the regional leadership of OSU South Centers in all 19 counties in "agbioscience" commercialization that integrates agricultural innovations into the expansive natural resource infrastructure of the region. While this effort will focus on the complete supply chain of four primary areas - the wood industry, advanced foods, biofeedstock development and environmental sciences - all agricultural-related innovations will be supported.

More information is provided in an article in today's Chillicothe Gazette at this link: http://www.chillicothegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/NEWS01/703290307/1002