Governor Announces More Than $4.2 Million in Third Frontier Awards, 371 Jobs for Central Ohio
COLUMBUS, OHIO (October 16, 2003) - Governor Bob Taft today announced more than $4.2 million in Third Frontier awards to several Columbus area companies that will be used to create 371 high-paying jobs in Central Ohio and put Ohio on the map as a leader in the knowledge economy.
"Ohio must be the place where new knowledge is used to create new products, new businesses and new jobs," said Taft. "I'm pleased to see that happening here in Central Ohio, and I'm proud the state could partner with these cutting-edge projects to create so many good jobs for Ohioans."
SCI Engineered Materials received a $1,175,321 Third Frontier Action Fund (TFAF) award to scale-up advance manufacturing processes that will enable the production of thin-film Lithium batteries. These super-small, high-powered batteries will be used in new products ranging from medical devices to smart cards. Within five years, SCI expects to more than double their revenue to $19 million and create an additional 19 good, new jobs for Ohioans. SCI Engineered Materials has partnered nationwide with Lithchem International, Excellatron LLC, Infinite Power Solutions, Inc., and Cymbet, Inc., on this project.
A $1,128,242 TFAF award will help Columbus-based Phylogeny, Inc., advance biomedical research capabilities by revolutionizing the way researchers receive human tissue samples. Through the manufacturing and sales of Phylogeny's Tissue MicroArray (TMA), researchers and pathologists will now be able to see up to 1,000 human tissue samples on one slide, compared to the current standard of one. Phylogeny has partnered with Omeris and The Ohio State University on this project to rapidly create an extensive tissue repository. They have also established distribution partnerships with Novagen and Ambion, two of the most significant supply distributors, to put their product to market. They project $14 million in revenue growth within the next five years and expect to create 27 additional jobs.
A $975,881 TFAF award to the Bioprocessing Innovative Company, Inc., (BIC) will dramatically reduce the cost of electronic testing chips by using polymers instead of silicon. These electronic microchips are used to screen everything from toxic chemicals in homeland security efforts to human diseases in the laboratory. Using polymers allows the chips to be mass-produced and reduces the cost by a factor of 10. BIC is partnering with Avery Dennison Microreplication, The Ohio State University, OSU-NSF, OSU-Center for Advanced Polymers and Composite Engineering, OSU-Bioprocessing Research Consortuim and Omeris. BIC projects revenues of $60 million within the next five years and expects to create at least 25 new, good jobs for Ohioans.
MetaMateria Partners, LLC received a $968,426 TFAF award to help make fuel cell components more affordable. Affordability is the biggest barrier to the commercialization of fuel cells, and through their collaborations with The Ohio State University, the Edison Welding Institute, SOFCo-EFS, the Business Technology Center and NanoDynamics, MetaMateria expects to have an affordable product on the market by 2005. They estimate 300 additional new jobs will be created by 2015.
The Third Frontier Project is Taft's $1.6 billion job creation program to expand Ohio's high-tech research capabilities and promote start-up companies to create high-paying jobs. It is the state's largest-ever economic development investment and has received bi-partisan support from the Ohio Legislature. The final part of the Third Frontier Project, a $500 million bond program up for voter approval in November, would allow the state to allocate $50 million annually over the next 10 years to attract top research talent to Ohio institutions, help with the development and commercialization of new products and create new good jobs for Ohioans.
