Area Development
Dr. Barrett Slenning isn't too polite to say that connections count when it comes to getting the attention of government site selectors. But the kind he's talking about have less to do with politics than with professional relationships.

"I don't know of too many other places where someone from a veterinary college can call the state's Secretary of Health and actually have somebody answer the phone," says Slenning, a veterinarian and associate professor at the North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. "But that happens here because, over the years, we've created relationships with private-sector businesses, state and local government, and other academic institutions."

In fact, Slenning claims that willingness to work together is a major reason why the Umstead Research Farm in Granville County, N.C., made the cut to the final five prospective sites for the Department of Homeland Security's new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF). Nestled near the heart of North Carolina's Research Triangle, the Umstead site draws from the Triangle's reputation for attracting big-time bio and pharmaceutical industry players such as Merck & Co. and Glaxo-Wellcome, Inc. But it's not the only short list site with solid credentials.

The Flora Industrial Park in Madison County, Miss.; Kansas State University at Manhattan, Kan.; the Texas Research Park in San Antonio, Texas; and the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga., are credible contenders, too. And all made the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) final-five list of potential sites.

The sweepstakes to host the NBAF began in January 2006, when the DHS announced its intentions to establish a new Safety Level 4 facility to research disease-borne health and security threats from bird flu to bio-terror agents, and to develop vaccines capable of neutralizing them. Institutions and consortia representing 29 sites in 11 states offered themselves up as contenders for the proposed facility. These ranged from the venerable Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at the University of California at Davis; to an optimistic consortium connecting the University of Tennessee, the University of Kentucky, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory; to a site in remote Somerset, Ky.

After yearlong proposal reviews, DHS pared its list down to 18 potential lab locations in 11 states. After a series of site visits, in July 2007, the agency whittled the list down even further to just five prospective locations. Now, as environmental impact studies - that will, among other things, measure community support for the facility - get under way, site promoters are pondering their chances for landing the project, which will pump millions into their economies even before it officially opens in 2013.

Economic Impact
"The impact of a 520,000-square-foot facility over four or five years is about $20 million just in construction jobs and general economic impact," says Ross Tucker, vice president of economic development for the MetroJackson Chamber of Commerce in Jackson, Miss., whose jurisdiction includes Mississippi's site entry, the Flora Industrial Park. "Overall, we estimate that the facility, if we are chosen for it, will have an economic impact of $3.5 billion over 20 years."

According to Tucker, the Flora site may not have the historic technical clout some other contenders enjoy. However, proximity to the University of Mississippi's Medical Center, an already established research center, and to Mississippi State University, long engaged in animal research work, is in its favor. The fact that Battelle Corp., manager of five national laboratories across the United States (including national laboratories at Oak Ridge and Idaho) is part of the Flora site consortium doesn't hurt either.

"We're looking at this in the same way Oak Ridge, Tenn., did before the national lab located there," says Ross of his site's chances to win the facility. "Even Georgia had only a university before the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) arrived there."

In fact, its 60-mile proximity to the CDC in Atlanta makes the University of Georgia at Athens site - home to the school's College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences - prime real estate for the new NBAF, according to Dr. David Lee, the university's vice president for research. Like North Carolina, Georgia has become a destination for both public- and private-sector biomedical firms and service suppliers eager to take advantage of plenty of infrastructure, including an experienced work force and a reputation for cooperative networking - all in a science-savvy environment.

"In order for the NBAF to fulfill its agenda, it can't be located in a cornfield," says Lee. "If there were to be an infectious disease emergency or a bio-terror incident, the NBAF would have to assemble a scientific team in order to respond." According to Lee, the University of Georgia site is just an hour's drive from the CDC and also enjoys proximity to the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) Russell Research Center and a USDA research service facility in Atlanta, so such a scientific response team could be assembled within a matter of hours. Meanwhile, Lee adds, the university has long been highly involved in vaccine and other bio- and agro-research endeavors and will stay that course whether or not it's awarded the NBAF facility.

But according to Dr. James Guikema, Associate Provost at Kansas State University (KSU) in Manhattan, Kan., there is plenty of infrastructure in Kansas too. It's well established, he says, and it's growing. "Kansas State has been in food safety research for 50 years," says Guikema. "So this wouldn't be new for us."

What is new is a Bio Safety Level 3 facility designed for plant and animal infectious disease research that is slated to open in January 2008 at KSU. Guikema says the new the Biosecurity Research Institute could be a useful complement to a new Bio Safety Level 4 NBAF facility. "One of the things we hope is that the institute would be used as a lily pad - a starting point - for NBAF research projects," he says.




San Antonio has had such a complement for the past seven years in the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, the only privately owned Bio Safety Level 4 facility in the United States. Its presence, says York Duncan, president of the Texas Research and Technology Foundation, which owns the Texas Research Park, gives San Antonio an edge in the NBAF sweeps.

"The Southwest Foundation is already working on many of the things on the NBAF agenda," says Duncan. "And the lab is part of our consortium." What's more, he says, Fort Sam Houston will become a center for military medicine in 2011. Thanks to its reputation as "Military City USA" for the plethora of military bases - both active and inactive - located there, San Antonio is accustomed to doing business with the government.

In fact, it's the Texas Research Park site in San Antonio that Angelos Angelou, founder and president of AngelouEconomics, an Austin-Texas-based economic development consulting firm, thinks will prevail when DHS makes its final cut. Along with its industry-specific infrastructure, San Antonio has other economic and community aspects site selectors appreciate.

"Texas is an agriculture center, has military bases, has proximity to the Mexican border, and was chosen a few years ago by the federal government for a National Security Agency security analysis center," Angelou says. "It has all the right connections with the right industries and with the federal government."

All Winners
Analysts and those who represent site contenders have plenty of time to speculate about where the NBAF will eventually be located; the Department of Homeland Security won't make its final NBAF site selection until 2009. In the meantime, some connected with the final five sites say even losing the right to host the lab still counts as a win.

"Every time we pursue a project like this, we develop relationships with other institutions and with private-sector businesses," says North Carolina State's Barrette Slenning. "Even if we don't get the lab, our relationships will continue to get stronger."

For Mississippi's Ross Tucker, just making the final five has long term benefits. "Whether we're chosen for the lab or not, this has been good for us," Tucker says. "It has opened people's minds about what we can do here - what kind of industries we have the potential to attract - and how we can develop our potential in the long run."