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San Jose BioCenter Named Incubator of the Year
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
By Lisa Sibley, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal
The San Jose BioCenter took top honors this year, not once, but twice.
The incubator in San Jose's Edenvale area, which accelerates commercialization in the life sciences, received the 2009 National Business Incubation Association's Randall M. Whaley Incubator of the Year Award and the Dinah Adkins Incubator of the Year Award in the technology category, along with a $2,000 prize. The National Business Incubation Association advances business incubation and entrepreneurship on a worldwide level, and honors business incubation programs, graduates and client companies that exemplify the best of the industry each year.
The incubator of the year award is the association's most prestigious honor, recognizing overall excellence in business incubation. One of the finalists behind the San Jose BioCenter included InNOVAcorp. of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The awards were announced Wednesday at the association's 23rd International Conference on Business Incubation in Kansas City, Mo.
The San Jose BioCenter provides specialized facilities, capital equipment, laboratory services and commercialization support for emerging science and technology companies.
"We tried a new model that really tries to give small companies that big company infrastructure," said Executive Director Melinda Richter, of the program which helps catalyze the process of starting and growing companies by providing entrepreneurs with the expertise, networks and tools they need to make their ventures successful.
The association estimates that in 2005, North American incubators assisted more than 27,000 startup companies that provided full-time employment for more than 100,000 workers and generated annual revenue of more than $17 billion. Approximately 5,000 business incubators operate worldwide.
Richter said the awards will help to increase awareness of the BioCenter as an international destination location for new technology coming into the United States.
"This award puts us on an international level of attention in terms of the facilities and services we have," she said.
The center currently has a contingent of companies from Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Its expansion, which is underway, will allow the center to continue to accommodate more startups.
Richter said the $2,000 will be used to celebrate this accolade with the clients and the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, which supports the incubator.
"It's really about the client companies. It's about making them more successful," Richter said.
Lisa Sibley can be reached at 408.299.1841 or lsibley@bizjournals.com.
All contents of this article ® American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.
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