$40 Million Biotech Commercialization Fund Seeded in Minnesota

One of the few new spending bills to make it through the 2001 session of the Minnesota Legislature provides $10 million in seed money for technology commercialization through a new Biomedical Innovation and Commercialization Initiative (BICI – pronounced beach-ee). The BICI appropriation is contingent upon state economic development officials securing a three-to-one private sector match.



BICI is a collaborative economic development initiative involving the State of Minnesota, the University of Minnesota and the state’s medical research institutions, companies and investors. It establishes a commercial enterprise – independent of both the university and state government – to bridge the gap between academic basic research and the commercialization of new technologies.



The explicit mission of BICI is to identify and invest in biomedical ventures that have long-term commercial development potential. It targets biomedical research at the University of Minnesota’s Academic Health Center, the area of academic basic research that has the most immediate commercial potential. Successful implementation of the BICI model could result in similar future ventures in other areas such as digital or media technology, nanotechnology or agriculture.



More information is available at: http://www.dted.state.mn.us/00x05f.asp and in the February 2001 concept report on the website of Minnesota Technology, Inc. http://www.minnesotatechnology.org/BICIReport.pdf