Category Archives: Innovation

Do you love the power of innovation? We do too! You will find notes and posts on Innovation right here.

CorePurpose Chairman Speaks Out for Health Innovation on the Vital Health Podcast

Posted on by

Joan Koerber-Walker is President and CEO of the Arizona Bioindustry Association (AZBio), supporting one of the top emerging biotech clusters in the United States. Trained as an economist and a biotech investor herself, Joan is no stranger to pricing discussions. As the Build Back Better debate reached a fever pitch, all eyes turned to Arizona given the bill’s focus on drug pricing and Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s known support of the Arizona Biotech Sector.  While Build Back Better is no more, the drug pricing debate is not going away anytime soon.

In this podcast we discuss how the drug pricing debate threatens to derail innovation, as does aggressive tax policy positions being taken by many leaders in traditionally pro-biotech states like California and Massachusetts. The biotech sector in Arizona has been a direct beneficiary of many of these decisions.

As well, we discuss how institutions like the Mayo Clinic, which have a large footprint in Arizona, are making big investments developing a commercial R&D hub called the Discovery Oasis. Joan highlights how the Mayo Clinic fertilizes innovation across Arizona’s Health Innovation Ecosystem, and how that lays the groundwork for product development locally.

STEM Education: Delicious Results

Posted on by

Young Mason Partak, with help from his Mom, Kathy, are using technology in the form of GoFundMe to outfit the kitchen of his elementary school so that kids can learn to cook and students can have hot meals  to  fuel their brains and bodies.  What a great example of STEM education in action. Continue reading→

Innovators: Thank a Teacher Today

Posted on by

As innovators, we make progress every day to develop new  technologies and services that will support and sustain life, feed the world, and fuel it.  We develop new apps to connect, to inform and to diagnose.  We’ve build a world beyond what our grandparents or parents ever imagined. What we do matters.  More importantly, this next generation will give life to new innovations, some we can only yet imagine.Continue reading→

Honor Our Innovators and Nominate Them for Our Nation’s Highest Honor

Posted on by

Innovation is a key characteristic of our nation and critical to our current and future global leadership.  These days it is rare to attend a speech or symposium where innovation does not figure prominently in the conversation.   It’s so easy to talk about innovation.  It’s not so easy to actually develop a new product or service, commercialize it and gain the acceptance that defines the transition from invention to innovation.

Recognizing these leaders and honoring their efforts and achievements is the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.Continue reading→

Spreading the Word on the SBIR STTR Race to the Finish Line

Posted on by

Few government programs make a bigger impact on keeping the United States at the forefront of innovation and technology of all kinds than the SBIR/STTR program.

A heat in the race for SBIR/STTR reauthorization was including in it in the Continuing Resolution (CR) that funded the Federal Government through December 16th, The Senate has now included the SBIR/STTR reauthorization in the Senate Defense Bill that passed yesterday by a vote of 93-7. The Bill also authorizes money for military personnel, weapons systems, national security programs in the Energy Department, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Chair, Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, made the following comments following the Senate’s unanimous vote in favor of Amendment 1115 to the National Defense Authorization bill. The amendment would reauthorize the Small Business innovation and Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for another eight years.Continue reading→

The Super Committee could put bioscience industry growth and innovation at risk … hopefully they won’t!

Posted on by

Washington’s support is critical in protecting the only sector that demonstrated job gains, in Arizona and in Tucson in 2010.”

IMG_2008Last week I had the opportunity to share my opinion on some of the key decisions that the Super Committee is grappling with that could have a lasting impact on our community and our state.  Southern Arizona and especially Tucson is leading in bringing life changing innovation to the world.  This is what I shared as seen in  Inside Tucson Business

“Next Wednesday, Nov. 23, is the deadline when the Congressional “super committee” is supposed to present its cohesive cost-savings plan. This 12-member panel, among them Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., has been grappling with the monumental task of slashing $1.5 trillion from the federal budget for months.

Continue reading→

Small Business, Innovation, and the Importance of Long Term SBIR and STTR Reauthorization NOW

Posted on by

 

At times like these, when the need for innovation, is greater than ever, the SBIR and STTR Programs hold the keys to the growth of new and innovative products in the U.S. small business sector.  Funding through SBIR and STTR awards provides critical support for new discoveries in both the small business and university research communities across 11 key Federal Agencies and unlocks the vault to bring out new innovations right here at home.

Continue reading→