AZ Big Media Mapping 20 years of progress in Arizona’s bioscience sector – AZ Big Media

When you are reaching for a long-term, challenging but attainable goal, you need more than aspirations, you need a team and a plan.

Twenty years ago, over 100 Arizona leaders came together to develop a plan to build our bioscience sector with guidance from experts at Battelle and support from the Flinn Foundation. The result was Arizonas Bioscience Roadmap.

Today, Arizonas bioscience sector is performing at historically high levels after the creation of the Roadmap placed the state on a long-term trajectory toward success.

READ ALSO:Learn more about Arizona Bioscience Week

READ ALSO: Heres how Arizona bioscience sector is making a difference

The vision for Arizonas Bioscience Roadmap is for the state to become globally competitive and a national leader in the biosciences in such fields as precision medicine, cancer, neurosciences, and bioengineering by 2025. Today, the Roadmap is guided by Arizonas Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee, comprised of about 135 leaders from the public and private sectors in science, health care, business, academia, and policy.

The Flinn Foundation supports the Steering Committees efforts and commissions the collection, analysis, and public release of the performance metrics as they have done since the launch of the Roadmap.

And since the 2002 launch of Arizonas Bioscience Roadmapthe states long-term strategy to guide the biosciencesthe increases are striking: from 73,000 to 133,000 in bioscience jobs, including hospitals; $34 million to $240 million in venture capital; $133 million to $297 million in NIH funding; and $273 million to $623 in academic R&D.

Over the last 20 years, Battle followed by TEConomy Partners has measured and reported the latest performance analysis. Reports commissioned by the Flinn Foundation and shared with the community shows the progress Arizona is making in bioscience jobs, wages, venture capital, National Institutes of Health research funding, and university research and development. The next data report is scheduled to be released in 2024.

The evidence is strongArizonas dedication to advancing the biosciences over the past 20 years has paid substantial dividends for our economy and health, said Tammy McLeod, Ph.D., Flinn Foundation president and CEO. We have made groundbreaking discoveries and clinical advancements at our universities, research institutes, and hospitals. Weve launched companies, established innovation hubs, and boosted the state economy through tough periods. And there is more to come.

Arizonas Bioscience Roadmap is a long-term strategic plan originally commissioned by the Flinn Foundation in 2002 and updated in 2014 with the goal of Arizona becoming globally competitive and a national leader in select areas of the biosciences by 2025. The Roadmap features five overarching goals, as well as strategies and potential actions, to help the state achieve this vision.

Thegoalsinclude:

Forming anentrepreneurial hub;

Turningresearch into practice;

Developingbio-talent;

PromotingArizonas convergence of research, health care, and commercializationto economic partners in neighboring states, Canada, and Mexico; and

Enhancing the states collaborative gene reputation.

Get the facts: Flinn.org/Bioscience

Read more from the original source:

AZ Big Media Mapping 20 years of progress in Arizona's bioscience sector - AZ Big Media