National Cancer Institute

The Mid-Atlantic Region State and Local Economic Development Award recognizes successful initiatives that involve partnership between state or local economic development groups and federal laboratories for economic benefit in the region. 

The FLC Mid-Atlantic Region (FLC-MAR) has actively engaged academia and state and local economic development organizations around the region in fostering technology development and technology transfer. Two groups in particular stand out in this effort: the FLC/Southeastern Virginia planning group and the FLC/ Washington Metro planning group, which focuses on Maryland, Washington DC, and northern Virginia. 

Technology innovation is one of the key economic drivers of local economies and originates from a variety of sectors within a region. In order to harness the maximum impact of a region’s technological capabilities, it is necessary to foster an atmosphere of collaboration among these sectors. The FLC-MAR has been actively involved in organizing forums for state and local governments, federal technology-based agencies, universities, industry, and economic development agencies to showcase the various partnering opportunities, technologies and services available from each sector. 

During 2010-2011, the FLC-MAR organized three forums designed to take full advantage of the vast technology resources available in the region. These forums were created to encourage broad involvement by relevant sectors of the local community and, at the same time, to take full advantage of the technology strength of the respective areas in the Mid-Atlantic Region. All of these events provided an interactive forum highlighted by participation from all relevant stakeholders. Local universities and economic development agencies were well-represented, and they were given the opportunity to seek or provide assistance for various technology-related initiatives. This strategy had a synergistic effect, in that problems faced by members of one sector could be addressed by technologies or solutions from another. The FLC planning groups have been able to establish and sustain strong, positive networking partnerships with a range of academic and economic development organizations in support of mutual goals. Specifically, federal labs are combining their technology development with commercialization efforts by academia and the support of business development by the private sector to foster technology and economic growth. 

Awardees

NIH Office of Technology Transfer

• Mojdeh Bahar

National Cancer Institute 

• Charles Salahuddin 
• Dr. Thomas Stackhouse