When Bio Nebraska, the biotech trade association, commissioned a study on industry needs in the state, it was for a narrow question: Should there be a push to build a $50-70 million industrial manufacturing pilot facility?

The vision was for an incubator and innovation lab for a range of biotech companies.

“This facility could be for a startup … a university researcher,” said Rob Owen, the executive director of Bio Nebraska. “This can be (for) one of your big multinational companies that needs research space.”

But Nebraska companies said they didn’t really need this facility. Instead, they had more pressing concerns.

“The interesting thing was, more times than not, the No. 1 issue for folks was workforce,” Owen said. “It’s not necessarily quality, it’s quantity. And that’s from entry level all the way up.”

With the study results published as a white paper in late August, Bio Nebraska hopes to start a broader discussion about how Nebraska can support local biotech. The Nebraska Corn Board also funded the study.

While state leaders, like Gov. Jim Pillen, have made overtures to Nebraska’s bioeconomy — with an emphasis on ethanol and hopes for producing sustainable aviation fuel — the industry’s diversity often flies under the radar. 

A variety of products, from blood-testing tools and food preservatives to animal vaccines and livestock supplements, are made here. 

“We have the Cargill campus for industrial biomanufacturing, we have the (University of Nebraska Medical Center) on human health, we have those animal health companies, and we have agtech,” Owen said. “So let’s be good at what we’re already good at. Let’s go all in.”

Common sense

There’s an economic development argument for a Nebraska-based biotech manufacturing pilot facility. Local infrastructure could encourage more biotech companies to grow in or relocate to the state. Existing companies could invest here instead of working with facilities elsewhere, and as a result, perhaps leaving the state.

“Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin, they all have corn, they all have workforce,” Owen said. “So if they can go do everything there, why come back here? Valid point.”

But as the Bio Nebraska study sees it — despite Owen wanting the pilot plant — it just doesn’t make sense right now. 

“We probably talked to 20 or so companies, small startups, all the way up to big multinational, international corporations that have facilities in Nebraska,” Owen said.

Companies told Bio Nebraska’s survey they were more likely to use the facility for workforce development. But that would be once every three years or so.

There are also too few biotech startups in the state to make a $50-70 million investment worthwhile, Owen said. At the same time, existing pilot plants in other states, like South Dakota, are underutilized, and other facilities will soon be built in the Midwest.

“You just can’t build one of these and hope they come,” Owen said. “If we had 100 (biotech startups) in the pipeline in Nebraska, that might be a different story.”

But there may be an opportunity for a smaller manufacturing plant focused on biologicals, or pharmaceuticals and vaccines. That would be both cheaper and more likely to get used by Nebraska companies.

There already is a Biological Process Development Facility at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which Bio Nebraska visited as part of the study. 

The facility is used as a testing ground for companies outside of Nebraska, and is often busy. “So there’s already kind of a demand for that type of work,” Owen said.

Leadership and opportunity

For biotech in Nebraska to grow, there needs to be better leadership, Owen said. That includes from businesses and nonprofits, as well as the state itself. 

Take UNL, which has an Industrial Agricultural Products Center, meant to help industries like corn and ethanol manufacture new, higher-value products. 

But from the Bio Nebraska and biotech industry perspective, the IAPC is woefully underfunded. The group doesn’t even have its own lab on the campus in Lincoln.

“You need a re-engagement from the university, which will then (lead to) a new engagement from industry,” Owen said. “The Nebraska Corn Board would love, and so would we, to see that IAPC have a facility of its own.”

Likewise, Nebraska’s political leaders need to have a clear strategy for biotech, Owen said. Other states are investing tens of millions of dollars in biotech projects. And while the Business Innovation Act is crucial to support new companies in Nebraska, its awards for individual companies are usually in the $50,000-150,000 range.

That’s not enough to spur industry growth. “If you want the economy to grow, you need to do some R&D and some investment,” Owen said. “And it can’t be looked at as an expense.”

There are some new regional biotech initiatives that could help make Bio Nebraska’s vision a reality. Iowa State University is leading a collaboration between roughly 70 Iowa and Nebraska institutions, including UNL, for an initiative to boost local biomanufacturing. 

RuralSTAMINA recently won $15 million from the National Science Foundation and is eligible for $160 million over the next decade if it finds success. 

Meanwhile, a partnership between the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development and the Greater Omaha Chamber has branded 11 counties around Omaha and Lincoln as the AgWorks Corridor. The initiative intends to better align the biotech and agtech industry in the region and make it a destination for startups and other companies.

“I think it’s a great idea, that we should have done it years ago,” Owen said. “I’m ecstatic that they did it.”