NEW ORLEANS — Delegates from the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, lead agency of the Gulf Coast Health Sciences Corridor, recently traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the Build Back Better Regional Challenge Summer Conference sponsored by the Economic Development Administration. The conference was an invitation-only event.
The GCHSC is a coalition of stakeholders from business, government, nonprofits and academia within the “South Louisiana Super-Region” spanning from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. The coalition was awarded a $500,000 Phase I grant from the EDA in order to support the planning of projects intended to transform the region into a national leader in health sciences, with a particular focus on addressing obesity and chronic diseases. GCHSC is currently one of 60 national finalists for an EDA BBBRC Phase II implementation grant, part of a $1 billion competitive award.
“Our goals for this conference were to build strong connections by meeting with fellow finalists, federal agencies, and philanthropies to outline the tremendous opportunity we have to improve our communities through the combined efforts of this partnership,” said Korey Patty, regional economic competitiveness officer at NOBIC. “We want to spread our coalition’s name in hopes of furthering our projects that will lead to an improved health sciences industry in Louisiana.”
The conference included opportunities for finalists to give presentations, learn from peers, listen to reflections from the EDA’s Technical Assistance Coalition and to network. Prominent speakers included Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and White House Infrastructure Coordinator and Senior Advisor to the president Mitch Landrieu.
Delegates from the following agencies were a part of the GCHSC representation: NOBIC, Tulane University and Louisiana Economic Development. Also in attendance were representatives from GNO, Inc., which is also a finalist in the BBBRC challenge.
For more information on NOBIC, please visit neworleansbio.com.
