Events Calendar
In This Section
Council OKs grant to bring jobs to Green
Welcome to Akron's 'new' neighborhood
Falls approves sale of former plaza site
Group recommends merging Akron, Summit County health agencies
Jewell Cardwell: LeBron fans cooking up fundraiser
Citizens and public officials question wetlands proposal in Lake Township
Canton school board won't seek operating levy
Downtown Akron restaurants serve up 79,000 pounds of cardboard for recycling
Most Read Stories
Man robbed at Tallmadge Avenue eatery
Another winter punch heading toward Ohio
Complaints against officer keep coming
Four teens restrain man, take items from his Akron home
Police: Ohio girl dies after fall into snow bank
Region makes way for latest batch of snow; cancellations rise
Cuyahoga Falls residents come home to find burning couch on balcony
Blogs:
First Bell - On Education:
No City of Akron basketball tonight
Pets:
Pet telethon re-airs
The Heldenfiles:
Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30
Akron Zips:
Late surge gives Zips ugly road win
Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated
Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft
Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9
Cleveland Cavaliers:
NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
Varsity Letters:
Garfield at Buchtel basketball
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Law, Love and Chocolate
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
OFCCP Report
Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
Hospitals and universities requesting $23 million medical study in Akron
By Cheryl Powell
Beacon Journal medical writer
Published on Thursday, Feb 07, 2008
Several Northeast Ohio hospitals and universities teamed up this week to ask the state for nearly $23 million to help build an international orthopedic research powerhouse in the region.
A partnership led by the University of Akron filed a grant application with the state's Third Frontier Commission on Monday seeking funding to boost research focused on bone, joint and connective-tissue problems.
The regional partners want to use money from the Ohio Research Scholars Program to recruit ''eminent scholars and supporting research staff'' to form the Orthopaedic Research Cluster of Northeast Ohio, according to the grant application.
The cluster would bring together researchers and physicians from UA, Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM), Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), the Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic, Akron General Medical Center, Akron Children's Hospital and Summa Health System.
If successful, the partners would recruit top researchers to fill five new endowed chair positions: two at NEOUCOM, two at UA and one at CWRU, said project director Dr. Walter E. Horton, NEOUCOM's vice president for research and professor of anatomy.
The goal
The partners' goal: ''To reach a level of productivity to support the statement that Northeast Ohio has the largest, most productive, most funded and most successful skeletal biology and orthopaedic research program in the world.''
''We were extremely pleased with the way this proposal came together,'' Horton said on Wednesday.
The grant application is a piece of a larger economic development initiative to create a multi-million-dollar research facility within the city of Akron's biomedical corridor, which stretches from Akron General Medical Center, around downtown and to Summa's Akron City Hospital.
City and county officials have been working with UA, NEOUCOM and the Akron hospitals to identify five possible sites for the proposed Orthopaedic Research Institute of Northeastern Ohio, known as ORINEO for short.
UA's grant application was one of 23 received by Monday's deadline, according to a summary of applications listed on the Third Frontier Commission's Web site.
Competing for funds
The state had received more than 40 grant proposals when letters of intent were due in November.
Combined, the 23 applicants statewide are seeking funding of more than $626 million.
Awards are limited to $50 million per project, and matching funds must be secured. A total of $150 million is available from the state.
UA and its partners want $17.6 million to fund the proposed endowed research chairs, $2.9 million in capital and another $2.5 million for operations.
The initial figure of $27.5 million for the orthopedic project, which was listed in previous filings with the state, was an estimate that was adjusted to $23 million in the final, 134-page proposal, Horton said.
The grants are jointly offered by the state's Department of Development and the Ohio Board of Regents, with the goal of increasing the ''clusters of research excellence'' statewide.
The proposals are being reviewed by the National Academies, which will hear presentations from each applicant and then make recommendations, Ohio Department of Development spokeswoman Nikki Jaworski said.
The National Academies are made up of experts at the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council.
The Third Frontier Commission is expected to pick the winning applicants at its May 20 meeting.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com.
Several Northeast Ohio hospitals and universities teamed up this week to ask the state for nearly $23 million to help build an international orthopedic research powerhouse in the region.
Get the full article here.
