The Board of Directors for the Albemarle County Economic Development Authority will meet at 4 p.m. in Room 241 at the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. (meeting info)
Before we get into the meeting, one of the reasons I do this work is to make sure any documents shared with stakeholders before meetings are publicly available. How can the public know what is happening with public money if information is incomplete?
Item #5 on the agenda is a resolution to provide matching funds to the entity known as CvilleBioHub for something called the Charlottesville Biotech Accelerator. Last June, CEO Nikki Hastings made a pitch to the EDA for additional space for start-ups in an industry that’s going to receive a huge boost from the presence of the Paul and Diane Manning Biotechnology Institute at the University of Virginia.
But the agenda available at publication through the calendar does not have any more details, nor does a meeting page on the EDA’s website. The proposal, however, was sent to anyone on the EDA’s email distribution list. You can see it now thanks to my uploading of the document to cvillepedia.
“CvilleBioHub… is currently in pursuit of $10 million over three years in funding to establish and sustain a Life Sciences and Innovation Lab Accelerator program,” reads the proposal. “This initiative aims to provide comprehensive guidance and support to approximately 15 to 20 early-stage life science companies during the three-year timeline, facilitating their journey toward success in facilitating growth and retention in the region and in Virginia.”
Four million of that is being requested from the Virginia Initiative for Growth and Opportunity program. That requires matching funds from a local agency. The money would be used to outfit a 6,500 square foot lab at the University of Virginia Foundation’s North Fork Discovery Park. The ask is for $300,000 in matching funds, something not listed on the agenda at publication time. Read the resolution here. Funding is contingent on similar matching funds from Charlottesville’s EDA as well as the University of Virginia.
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