As part of a state-wide effort to improve the economy of New Hampshire by promoting high-technology industries, Dartmouth has donated $700,000 worth of land towards the construction of a Dartmouth Regional Technology Center in Lebanon. The center will serve as a small business "incubator" that will provide a space for high-technology research companies to expand and commercialize their products.
Gregg Fairbrothers, director of the Dartmouth Entrepeneurial Network and Steve Epstein, executive director of the Grafton County Economic Development Council, said this incubator will encourage manufacturing and create high quality jobs within the state.
Fairbrothers initiated the project when he founded the DEN and provided the bridge between the interests of the GCEDC and those of Dartmouth College.
Epstein stressed the importance of the partnership that made the project possible: The collaborative efforts of the GCEDC, the DEN, the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development, the North Country Council and the New Hampshire Biotechnology Council, along with the agreed support of Dartmouth College and other institutions have directed the initiative.
A feasibility study funded by the New Hampshire DRED and produced by Rainey & Associates in December of 2001 analyzed the appropriateness of the project, stating that the Upper Valley, along with the Seacoast Region, where a similar project is planned, "are the two most promising locations for biomedical/life science focused technology incubators" based on the "clear and compelling evidence of demand and community support."
The $2.6 million requested of the Federal Economic Development Association should be secured in November and supplemented by $1.1 million in non-federal funds. Construction will begin in three to four years.
The incubator will enable research projects, many Dartmouth and UNH-affiliated, to benefit from the available space and promote entrepreneurialism in the community by encouraging those companies to expand and commercialize products within the state instead of taking them out-of-state.
An application process will determine the fledgling companies to occupy the incubator, which will provide not only space but advice and support services to vulnerable new high-technology firms.
Mike King of the North Country Council expects to see an eventual increase in the quality of jobs in northern New Hampshire. "The high-tech industry is where quality jobs are," he said.
The strength of Dartmouth's bio-medical and bio-technology research, along with UNH's programs in technology and environmental science, have focused, but not limited, the incubator to these areas.
The majority of the research funding that Dartmouth receives goes toward bio-medical and engineering projects, according to various department heads.
Dartmouth committed two lots in the Centerra Technology Park in Lebanon for the facility.
Mark A. Isreal, M.D., recently appointed Director of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at the DHMC, hopes the incubator will "instill an entrepreneurial spirit into many of the research projects we have going on," possibly including new strategies for imaging and treating tumors.
Within the Medical School, he suspects new research in the areas of cardiology, neurology, infectious disease and surgery would benefit from the incubator.
Dartmouth College and the University of New Hampshire have many potential projects to fill the incubator, while the New Hampshire Community Technical Colleges plan to train a workforce that can fill the technology-based jobs in the manufacturing industries produced.
