Business, science leaders to advise SCRA

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SCRA has formed three business and science advisory boards to assist the research authority’s board of trustees, the nonprofit corporation said in a news release.

The boards will include leaders from the industrial, biomedical and cybersecurity sectors, the S.C. Commerce Department, and participants from each of South Carolina’s research universities, along with the venture capital and angel investment organizations.

“SCRA serves as a bridge between industry and academia,” said Christine Dixon Thiesing, SCRA’s director of academic innovations. “It is imperative that the applied research SCRA funds benefits not only its academic stakeholders, but also South Carolina’s industrial base.”

The organization said the boards were formed to provide independent, unbiased expertise for the SCRA board to evaluate programs and performance and to identify funding opportunities.

S.C. lawmakers chartered SCRA in 1983 to work with the public and private sectors to provide access to capital and identify opportunities to fuel the knowledge economy in the state. The organization said its programs had a $700 million impact on S.C.’s economy during the most recent fiscal year.