Page 26 - Innovation Delaware 2021

WHY DELAWARE?
JOHN KOH AND ALOK PATEL
Delaware is “a great hub for discovery” as well as the perfect place for innovation and collaboration, says KATHLEEN MATT, dean of the University of Delaware’s College of Health Sciences and one of the biggest boosters of UD’s STAR (Science, Technology and Advanced Research) Campus.
For entrepreneurs, Delaware is a no- brainer. There is an educated workforce, good quality of life and economic advantage, says PATRICK CALLAHAN, CEO of Wilmington data analytics firm CompassRed. He likes to tell the story of trying to start his first company in California. His wife had to drive the permit applications to another city because no one would answer the phone at the closest government office. Then, when he tried to hire a scientist, he found out the local starting salary was $300,000 due to the high cost of living.
Callahan has since become one of
Delaware’s most enthusiastic advocates. He’s the Chair of the Science & Tech Advisors, a group convened by the First State’s economic development agency, the Delaware Prosperity Partnership. The Science & Tech Advisors were founded last year to gather the sentiments of science and technology leaders in Delaware and allow them to speak with one voice as they advocate for federal funding that could come back to Delaware. (For more on the Science & Tech Advisors, see opposite page.)
Also last year, Callahan founded the Delaware Data Innovation Lab (DDIL), an interdisciplinary research lab encouraging representatives from many different, and sometimes disparate, areas to get creative in finding solutions for the pandemic. Through that approach and $2 million in CARES Act funds, DDIL was able to hire 22 scientists and technicians, the majority of them from out of state.
KATHLEEN MATT
PATRICK CALLAHAN
The group came up with models predicting evictions during the pandemic and looked at how students were being affected. For 2021, they’ve expanded their reach into areas such as augmented reality and transportation innovation.
Connecting Researchers with Instrumentation, Lab Space
Partnership and collaboration are key to DDIL, but those values are also exemplified by several other Delaware institutions. For example, there is no better place to see the spirit of working together than the Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI) in Newark. The core groups at DBI have amassed an incredible array of instrumentation and technical assistance for use in the life sciences areas of agriculture, energy and environment, and human health.
“Job creation in life sciences is joined at the hip with very expensive
24 DelawareBusinessTimes.com
JIM COARSE/MOONLOOP PHOTOGRAPHY