DORGAN ANNOUNCES RED RIVER VALLEY RESEARCH CORRIDOR INITIATIVE PASSES $500 MILLION MARK

Senator secured funding for new breakthrough contracts to two firms doing world-class research

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

CONTACT: Justin Kitsch
or  Brenden Timpe
PHONE: 202-224-2551

(FARGO, N.D.) – Joined by leaders of some of the area’s premier research institutions, U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) announced Tuesday that North Dakota universities and businesses have now received $532 million in federal funding through his Red River Valley Research Corridor initiative. He also announced four new contracts that Research Corridor entities have signed with the Department of Defense.

Dorgan launched the Research Corridor in 2002 as a way to harness North Dakota’s research universities to grow the state’s economy and bring good-paying jobs to the region. With the passage of a recent appropriations bill, the amount of federal funding Dorgan has directed to the Research Corridor rose to more than half a billion dollars.

“The funding that I’ve brought to North Dakota to grow the Research Corridor is funding that was going to be spent. The question was whether it would be spent in Massachusetts and California, or here in the heartland,” Dorgan said. “But this is not about the amount of funding I’ve directed to our state. It’s about the way we’ve been able to leverage that funding to grow cutting-edge businesses and state-of-the-art research, and to bring good-paying jobs to our region.”

One of the projects Dorgan has supported is a partnership between NDSU, Crane Wireless Monitoring Solutions and several other partners to develop the MicroObserver perimeter security system for the U.S. military and other government agencies. The system, which uses small ground sensors to detect people and vehicles that could threaten U.S. and allied forces, is smaller, cheaper and more effective than similar systems now used by the U.S. military.

Dorgan announced that the MicroObserver team has recently won two contracts to deploy the security system to hot spots overseas. One is a $3 million Army contract to deploy the system with U.S. forces engaged in the war on terrorism before the end of the year. The other contract will provide MicroObserver sensors as part of a border security system that will be deployed to a key U.S. ally. A North Dakota company, Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing, will produce the high-tech sensors used in the system.

Dorgan was also joined by Aldevron CEO Michael Chambers to announce two new contracts with the Department of Defense worth $4.2 million. Dorgan helped grow Aldevron by securing $8.5 million to allow the company to develop its ParalleleVax technology. The company now employs nearly 70 people, and plans to grow to more than 100 over the next 18 months.

“These new contracts are more evidence that the Research Corridor initiative is bearing fruit,” Dorgan said. “When I launched the Research Corridor, my goal was to help grow high-tech research capabilities here in North Dakota that would then become self-sustaining. That’s exactly what these projects have demonstrated. That’s helping our military do its job and helping grow our economy and bring good-paying jobs to our region.”

"Research supported by federal dollars across the university has led to significant achievements in many areas, spurring economic development for the region," said NDSU President Joseph A. Chapman.

"This funding has been essential to establishing a research infrastructure at NDSU that allows us to meet critical needs of the Department of Defense in microelectronics, coatings and high performance computing," said Philip Boudjouk, vice president for research, creative activities and technology transfer at NDSU."

Dorgan said NDSU, Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing and other members of the Research Corridor will play a role in the upcoming Red River Valley Research Corridor Conference on October 13. The event will be held at the Ramada Plaza and Suites and feature top-notch speakers such as Craig Venter, one of the leaders of the Human Genome Project; Craig Mundie, a top Microsoft executive; and Dean Kamen, an inventor who has been called the modern-day Thomas Edison.

—END—