Grand Forks Herald

Friday, August 7, 2009

Sometimes it takes a newspaper to point out something that everybody in town should have known.

Thursday's Herald is a case in point.

Probably everybody in Grand Forks knows that UND has an innovations center.

Probably few had any idea of its impact.

It took a story about the Center for Innovation's 25th anniversary to make that clear.

The numbers tell the story.

About 400 startup companies have been fostered by the center.

They employ 4,000 people.

It attracted $110 million in investments.

That’s an enviable record that pretty much unmatched.

The Center's story is compelling one, too.  Bruce Gjovig started the enterprise in a chemical closet.

Today, it occupies impressive quarters on the west end of UND's campus.  In addition to its functionality as office space, it's a kind of exhibition hall where the work of regional artists is displayed.

As Gjovig likes to point out, artists are innovators too.

Gjovig himself has been a pioneer. He won support from Tom Clifford, then president of UND, who urged him to talk to entrepreneurs about helping establish the center.  Gjovig took this idea to successful people, many of them with UND connections. Fifteen of them said "yes" right away.

But the success of the UND Center for Innovation was only one example of good news for Grand Forks presented on Thursday's Page A1.

Another story pointed out that North Dakota's research universities will get nearly $16 million from the National Institutes of Health.  Half will go for faculty and staff at UND and North Dakota State University; the rest will go to other state colleges, where it will be used for undergraduate education. This money follows about $13 million the state has gotten for high-tech equipment at the two largest campuses.

This level of funding suggests the development of another successful center here, one focused on medical research.  This has long been a goal of the UND School of Medicine which has beefed up its research at the same time that its revamped its curriculum and propelled itself into the ranks of innovative American medical schools.

Each of these undertakings is a good example of what higher education means for North Dakota.  The state's campus have pulled the state forward, leading the diversification of the state's economy.

Probably we all knew that - but it doesn't hurt to emphasize it.

The Center for Innovation has helped lead North Dakota's growth.  And the UND medical school is poised to increase its contribution to the state's prosperity - and its reputation of excellence.

Congratulations all around!

Mike Jacobs for the Herald