As we at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) have been meeting with com­panies, institutions, and investors around the world, we are extremely excited about the future of New York City bioscience. The global stakeholders in our industry are beginning to truly realize the depth of what New York City has to offer: 15 renowned medical and research centers, 128 Nobel Laureates and over $1.2 billion annually in NIH funding. We are starting to see industry excitement grow as companies evaluate all the benefits that a New York City location can provide. The East River Science Park, an 870,000 square foot bio­science campus located in the heart of Manhattan’s East Side medical corridor, will build on this momen­tum as companies will soon have an additional site in the center of Manhattan where they can develop and grow. There are a number of stakeholders now tracking he East River project, and we look forward to wel­oming them to our cluster. However, we still have a great deal to accomplish. In order to fully serve the bio­science industry, we are evaluating the best approach to meet the other needs of our industry, from workforce development to helping companies with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants to net operating loss carry-forwards and other tax credits. There are groups in New York City that are addressing this issue, but we must develop an overall plan. At the same time, we have learned about the efforts of our counterparts in other New York state regions and their accomplish­ments in promoting and building our industry. In order to capitalize on our strengths in New York State, the various regions have come together and formed the Regional Life Sciences Council. The groups involved to date are: the NYCEDC, the Long Island Life Sciences Life Sciences Initiative (LILSI), the Buffalo Niagara

Life Sciences Initiative (BuffLink), and BioConnex in the Albany region. Each group has developed programs and initiatives that benefit our industry. As we began to talk and learn about each other, we decided that it made much more sense to leverage our strengths and work together to promote common statewide goals to build New York State’s bioscience industry. We formed the Regional Life Sciences Council, and presented our mission and goals at the New York Biotechnology Association’s annual meeting at the end of March.Our mission as a group is to integrate regional initiatives to drive a statewide strategy to attract, retain, and devel­op the bioscience industry in New York State. We will concentrate our efforts in three primary areas:

1.      Legislation: There are a num­ber of programs that we would like to see receive state and federal fund­ing, including tax credits, workforce development and matching funds for SBIR grants, to name a few. We will be selecting and evaluating pro-grams to propose to the state and federal government.

2.      Marketing: As we recruit com­panies to New York State, we plan to work together to meet the needs of firms wanting to conduct business in New York State.

3.      Programming: We plan to col­laborate on common projects to advance the bioscience industry in New York State, such as a collection of state resources or programming directed at entrepreneurs and ven­e capitalists interested in doing business in New York State.

In order to be effective, the Regional Life Science Council needs input from all of the stakeholders in New York State’s bioscience industry. We are working with NYBA, and wel­come any other groups that would like to join us in our efforts. In addition, we would like to hear from you if you have any ideas regarding legislation, marketing, or programming. Please call or e-mail me, Monique Salazar at msalazar@nycedc.com or 212-312-3779 or my colleague Bill Fair at bfair@nycedc.com or 212-312-3836, if you have any suggestions or thoughts on how the Regional Life Sciences Council can better meet our mission of serving the New York State bioscience community.