What is OVALS?

The OVALS Partnership developed in 2002 as a forum to discuss and stimulate economic development opportunities for Life Sciences within the “Ohio Valley” region. The goals of the partnership are to:

• Increase regional visibility for existing life sciences assets
• Open new opportunities for collaboration across research institutions, industry and federal labs
• Expand and create new regional economic development initiatives in the life sciences arena

The OVALS mission is to promote scientific collaboration across the five research institutions, related industry and economic development groups in order to:

• Expand research directions
• Open new funding avenues
• Increase commercialization of the resultant new technologies

The cumulative assets and capabilities of the OVALS region positions it effectively to become a nationally recognized high growth area for life sciences, biotechnology, and related commercial and entrepreneurial efforts.

Why engage the OVALS region?

The founding partner universities attract and expend approximately $650 million per year on basic and applied research, which generates over 240 intellectual property disclosures per year. In 2003, the addition to OVALS of the Human Effectiveness Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory added $2 billion in research resources to the already impressive base.
In addition, this collaborative relationship contains many of the critical elements necessary to compete on a national basis:

• A wide range of state-of-the-art biomedical research facilities
• A significant number of researchers with world-class reputations in BioDefense, Entrepreneurship, Cancer, Drug Development, Cardiovascular Science
• Increased attraction and availability of capital from funds including Chrysalis
• Strategic and innovative corporate collaborations focused on commercialization of university life sciences research.
• Robust entrepreneurial support systems with clear access to experienced know-how
• Strong support foundations from two state and four local governments

How is OVALS achieving its mission?

Creating “Bridges to Collaboration” through an Annual Conference.
Active Participation in regional economic development planning efforts. Sponsoring unique programs such as “From Lab to Leadership”, the “VP of Research Summit”, and the Available Patents Database.