NorTech

Chris Varley, Vice President of NorTech, was appointed to the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force executive committee. The Task Force is led by Bill Mason, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor and was created to promote advanced energy in the Great Lakes region for:

• Economic Development: Job creation through new research and manufacturing opportunities
• Reduced Energy Costs for Local Consumers
• Environmental Improvement
• National Recognition as Leader in Advanced Energy

The first priority of the Task Force is to conduct a Feasibility Study to explore the potential for Offshore Wind Energy Development in Lake Erie and Research and Development activities.

View the Task Force report titled Building a New Energy Future: Recommendations for a Lake Erie Offshore Wind Energy Demonstration Project and Research Center, released February 2007.

Advanced Enery is one of NorTech’s key industry focus areas and the organization remains committed to building a sustainable technology future for Northeast Ohio.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded Case Western Reserve University a $64 million grant to increase commercialization of new drugs and medical devices, so they go from the researcher’s lab to the patient, quicker.

From the Plain Dealer:

Case Western Reserve University beat out about 25 other applicants for the honor, said Dr. Pamela Davis, the new dean of Case’s School of Medicine. Its partners in the project include University Hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth Medical Center and a number of other degree-granting schools and centers at Case.

Davis outlined the project at a reception Tuesday at the Wolstein Research Building. The grant is probably the largest ever awarded by the NIH to Northeast Ohio, she said.

“This is really important for Cleveland and for the biomedical community,” Davis said.

The five-year, $64 million venture will replace individual clinical research centers at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, MetroHealth Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic that now get about $9 million a year.

Driven by concerns about the lack of coordination between scientists investigating the sources of disease and doctors diagnosing and treating those diseases, the NIH created a research consortium it dubbed the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. It was unveiled two years ago as a new model for research institutions.

The NIH, with its annual budget of $28.5 billion, last year funded its first dozen centers to work with the institute. Case was selected in the second dozen. Eventually, the list will grow to include 60 centers across the United States “linked together to energize the discipline of clinical and translational science,” an NIH statement said.

The complete article can be found at: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/119019309912800.xml&coll=2&thispage=1