The MCA Foundation is focused on efforts to develop a biomedical research and technology commercialization park where research related to our community’s healthcare niche needs will take place. The site would be located south of Interstate 10, north of the railroad tracks and about two blocks east of Raynolds Street.
Key to establishing the park is the development of a Biomedical Tech Center. It will house office suites, principal investigator offices, incubator space, laboratories, core research elements, prototyping laboratories and/or machine shop facilities, and flex space that can be built out for specific tenants’ needs. Tenants may include public, private, for-profit and nonprofit researchers who will be poised to collaborate with regional institutions to discover medical breakthroughs and to commercialize them in our region. This state-of-the-art facility will be the first of a series of at least three buildings developed in the research park.
In September 2010, the Foundation hired the Hammes Company and E-Cubed Ventures as consultants on the creation of a three-phase strategic business plan that will include:
Phase I - Research Park Vision and Compact - to craft a shared vision and working commitment to grow a research park on 12 acres of land currently owned by the City of El Paso
Phase II - Research and Technology Commercialization Center Strategy – to define the mission, structure and operating functions of the research and technology center as an anchor and “innovation bridge” for the research park
Phase III - Biomedical Tech Center Business Plan – to specify the technology center building development, organizational and financial management requirements for the use in implementation
FEBRUARY 10-18, 2011
(Phase I) Vision and Compact meetings for the development of a biomedical research park occurred Feb. 10-18, 2011. Here is a powerpoint presentation that summarizes the outcomes of those meetings.
Powerpoint Presentation summary
MAY 5, 2011
(Phase II) On May 5, 2011, the MCA Foundation and E-Cubed Ventures held meetings with MCA stakeholders, such as UTEP, NMSU, TTUHSC Paul L. Foster School of Medicine and William Beaumont Army Medical Center, to gain consensus on how we move forward as a region with achieving our goals toward forming a biosciences cluster.
MAY 24-25, 2011
(Phase II) "Bio-competencies mapping" sessions took place May 24 and 25. The sessions involved careful interviews with scientists and reseachers throughout the region.
JULY 15, 2011
(Phase II) The May 5th meetings and mapping sessions culminated in a meeting on July 15 where the MCA Foundation gathered a group of more than 50 life sciences leaders and stakeholders from across the region to gain an understanding of our current status as a life sciences community. It is also when a series of proposals were recommended by E-Cubed that will give organization, structure and a platform for success to the region's fledgling life sciences pipeline for taking translational research to the marketplace.
NOTE: Upon completion of the three-phase strategic business plan, the MCA Foundation will begin to pursue funding opportunities to implement the plan.
