Summerville, S.C.– SCRA has been awarded approximately $750,000 in federal grant funding by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) as part of the 2018 Regional Innovation Strategies Competition. The grant will fund the creation of the South Carolina Medical Device Alliance to invent and develop products and bring them to market. This partnership, comprised of Clemson University, the Medical University of South Carolina and industry leaders, will form a regional innovation cluster to grow the economic impact of the medical device industry through job creation and startup formation, as well as to attract international businesses to establish a presence in South Carolina. The project total is $1,814,846, which includes the federal grant funding and matching funds.
“We are honored to be one of forty recipients nationwide,” said Christine Dixon Thiesing, SCRA’s Director of Academic Programs. “This program will serve South Carolina’s academic institutions and clinical innovators to overcome challenges inherent in the commercialization of medical devices. Building the medical device sector will also diversify South Carolina’s economy strategically by leveraging the existing skilled workforce and fostering a broader range of job opportunities for its workers.”
“MUSC’s Foundation for Research Development (FRD) is excited to be partnering with SCRA on this project,” said Michael Rusnak, Executive Director of FRD. “This gives MUSC one more vehicle to advance medical device technologies through our company startup activities; a substantial win for local economic development and more importantly, patients.”
“I am constantly amazed by the creativeness and vision that our students bring to their senior design projects here at Clemson,” said Dr. John DesJardins, Director of Clemson Bioengineering’s Undergraduate Design Program. “Our clinical and industry partnerships in design are essential to this educational process, and we are excited to have the medical devices invented in our senior design program serve as a pipeline in the development and commercialization of innovative biomedical devices.”
The Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, housed within the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, leads the Regional Innovation Strategies Program to spur innovation capacity-building activities in regions across the nation.
To learn more about the South Carolina Medical Device Alliance, including the scope of work and key personnel click here.
SCRA is a state-chartered organization that fuels South Carolina’s innovation economy by accelerating technology-enabled growth in research, academia, entrepreneurship and industry.
About SCRA
Chartered in 1983 by the State of South Carolina as a public, non-profit corporation, SCRA fuels South Carolina’s Innovation Economy by supporting entrepreneurs, enabling academic research and its commercialization, and connecting industry to innovators.
