Three years after moving around Ohio and Kentucky, the 9th Annual Ohio
Valley Affiliates for Life Sciences (or OVALS) Conference will return to Cincinnati in 2011.
OVALS launched in 2002 at the University of Cincinnati to connect the region's major research and medical universities. It started with just a few partners and has grown over the years to include the
Air Force Research Laboratory,
CincyTechUSA and
Ohio University.
The founding partner universities, in Ohio and Kentucky, attract and expend approximately $650 million per year on basic and applied research, which generates over 240 intellectual property disclosures per year, according to OVALS.
"We started this as an opportunity to pull together some of the research universities in our region. It’s a way to create a larger, critical mass of activity. On an individual level it's harder for us to compete with the east and west coasts," said Dorothy Air, OVALS chair and associate vice president for entrepreneurial affairs at UC.
The conference is the organization's signature event and brings together researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and innovators. It also includes the Universities of Kentucky and Louisville and
Bluegrass Business Development Partnership.
When the conference returns to the Queen City, even more university partners could be involved, Air said. At least three universities that conduct research but aren't traditionally known as research or medical universities have expressed interest and may join the affiliates by next year, she said.
In addition to gathering for the annual event, OVALS These affiliates share resources and equipment that make the Ohio and Kentucky life sciences community stronger, Air added.
"We all exist in a small area, and are within two hours of each other. That actually is an important part of how we pull this together. We wanted the kind of partnerships that help us to grow as a bio science and life science community," Air said.
Among the projects OVALS has helped bring to the area was the recent national
Small Business Innovation Research conference that came to Kentucky.
"To attract a national conference to a region you have to show you have local support in terms of organizing it, and that 500 or 600 people will come to it. (SBIR) put out a call for proposals. Kentucky led that and OVALS supported it," Air said.
Two-state organizations like OVALs are rare, and garner interest outside the region.
"A lot of people are quite taken with idea that we have two states working together and multiple organizations working with it. It's a little different model than what goes on in some areas. Because this is affiliation and not an official or government entity, it's pretty amazing that we pull together to get things done," Air said.
Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Dorothy Air, OVALS Chair
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