Economic Impact

Business Development

• The Regenerative Medicine CoEE has launched a spin-off company, FirstString, which markets wound repair technology.

• Cephos Corporation, a spin-off company of the Brain Imaging CoEE, uses brain imaging technology for lie detection.

• The Neurosciences CoEE has supported the creation of SemiAlloGen, Inc., a biotech company that develops therapeutics in the field of neurodegenerative disorders and cancer.

• The Photonic Materials CoEE has had an indirect impact on the launching of two companies: Advanced Photonic Crystals and Tetramer Technologies.

Economic Development

• The Timken Company, BMW, and Michelin have all located corporate teams and offices at the CU-ICAR campus. Timken's partnership at CU-ICAR alone is expected to generate at least 110 high-paying jobs in the Upstate region of South Carolina.

• The CoEE Program is building South Carolina’s competitive position in emerging high-growth industries. These sectors include automotive engineering, health sciences, life sciences, nanotechnology, advanced materials, supply chain optimization and logistics, fuel cells, and molecular nutrition.

• When the health sciences component of the program is fully funded and in place, as many as 40 world-class scientists, plus a cadre of researchers and technicians, will be working in South Carolina. The economic impact could range from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in new products and jobs.

• The Clinical Effectiveness and Patient Safety CoEE, approved by the Review Board in September 2005, will have operations in Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville. Each location could hire more than 100 people. Research conducted by this CoEE will develop models of improved patient care and health professional education through the dissemination of information and the use of technology. 

Funding

• In the last five years, South Carolina’s three research universities (Clemson University, the University of South Carolina, and the Medical University of South Carolina) have been able to attract more than $17 million in federal funding because of the CoEE program.
  
  
• The program has attracted industry-match dollars from Bank of America, Roche Carolina, BMW, Michelin, Timken, SunMicrosystems, and a number of other companies, along with grants from major foundations.
  
  
• Two CoEE Endowed Chair-holders are currently being recruited at brain-imaging research centers in Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville. The USC alumnus who donated $1.75 million to the South Carolina Brain Imaging CoEE said that it is unlikely he would have made such a large gift if it were not for the proven success of the program.
  
  
• The Duke Endowment awarded a three-year $21 million grant to Health Sciences South Carolina, enabling it to provide non-state funding for CoEE Endowed Chairs and establish the CoEE in Healthcare Quality and Clinical Effectiveness. The grant is the largest ever made by the 82-year-old private foundation's healthcare division and will help propel South Carolina into the forefront of research on patient safety, clinical effectiveness, and quality of healthcare.
  
  
• Two of the Centers of Economic Excellence approved in fiscal year 2007-08 had secured private-sector match dollars before they were approved by the CoEE Review Board. Santee Cooper and the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina announced their pledge of $5 million to establish a Center of Economic Excellence at USC that will research eco-friendly electricity production from coal. In addition, global medical devices company Smith & Nephew committed a major match to the Rehabilitation & Reconstruction Sciences CoEE.

• The Proteomics CoEE is affiliated with the MUSC Proteomics Center, which recently received the largest competitive extramural research award ever awarded in the state ($18.7 million).

• The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded the Polymer Nanocomposites CoEE a $901,000 grant.

• Clemson University has secured funding for the Supply Chain, Optimization & Logistics CoEE from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the creation of an Industry University Cooperative Research Center.

• The Nanostructures CoEE has received $650,000 in research funding from a variety of sources including the U.S. Department of Energy and the Army Research Office.

Technology Transfer

• The Regenerative Medicine CoEE has filed for several patents in wound healing technology.

• The Proteomics CoEE has filed for a patent in proteomics technology.

• The Marine Genomics CoEE has sold a diagnostic gene chip to the International Oyster Microarray Consortium on a cost-recovery basis.