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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.
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