Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today announced a federal grant worth $328,000 to build a new biotech training center for the New York BioHud Valley Initiative in Valhalla. The investment comes from the U.S. Economic Development Agency (EDA) and will be used to renovate an existing building at New York Medical College.
The grant for the BioHud Valley Initiative is part of a $1.4 million investment the EDA is making in projects across New York State.
“New York State is poised to lead in the high-tech economy of the future,” said Senator Gillibrand, who helped launch the BioHud Valley Initiative in 2010 with the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation. “With these investments, we can turn scientific breakthroughs happening right now at our world-class universities into new businesses and new jobs, and build key infrastructure to lay the foundation to attract more businesses and strengthen manufacturing, sparking a powerful economic engine fueled by our own innovation right here in the Hudson Valley.”
“These $1.4 million in EDA investments in New York are examples of the Obama administration’s commitment to supporting economic growth in local communities,” said Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank. “The grants announced today will bring new businesses to Rochester, accelerate bringing ideas to market in Buffalo, and provide a facility for training workers in fields that support high-quality, good-paying jobs.”
Senator Gillibrand has been a leading advocate for the America Innovates Act, legislation to support initiatives like the BioHud Valley across the country by investing in research that can be commercialized into new high-tech products, start new businesses and support new high-tech jobs.
Specifically, the EDA grant for the BioHud Valley Initiative, a consortium of biotech firms, universities and government entities, will be used to renovate existing space at New York Medical College into a training center for a range of biotechnology curricula, and create more experts in the field to support the region’s growing biotechnology cluster.