Building a New Economy With Biotechnology

Karin Fischer, writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, reports on the North Carolina Research Campus, a regional attempt to deliberately foster research as a regional economic driver, with a strong connection to higher education institutions. The article requires subscription for access, but you can access the project's website here, it leads off with: "The campus will be the missing link between getting an education here and building a career here."

The project, called the North Carolina Research Campus, is the brainchild of David H. Murdock, owner of Dole Foods and a onetime operator of the former textile mill that closed in 2003, leaving 4,800 people out of work. Six of the state's public universities and Duke University have signed on as major partners and will locate laboratories and researchers in Kannapolis, a city of 39,000 about 30 miles northeast of Charlotte. A separate development company owned by Mr. Murdock is recruiting private businesses. *** But a year after demolition crews detonated the plant that occupied the heart of town, attitudes may be changing. If construction goes according to plan, the 350-acre research campus will eventually form something like a town center, with retail shops, municipal buildings, and even a movie theater mixed in with the laboratory facilities.

If this topic interests you, you will also be interested in our Campus Sustainability Day V webcast, October 24, titled "Building a Durable Future: Community, the Campus, and Deep Economy."