Kansas’ network of business resources are working collectively to accomplish the following:
Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking for a place to start or build your bioscience company, an executive looking for new opportunities in the technology field or a venture capitalist looking for innovative opportunities for investing, Come Home to Kansas where we can help you grow!
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Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC)KTEC was formed as a private/public partnership focused on promoting technology-based economic development. It was designed to work in a way that mirrored the private sector, avoided bureaucracy and most importantly, emphasized return on investment. KTEC has since served as a national model for other states wishing to change and enhance their economic development initiatives.
KTEC assists entrepreneurs and technology companies by supporting the development and commercialization of new technologies through a statewide network. This network is designed and built to support researchers, entrepreneurs and technology companies through each phase of the technology life cycle. The ultimate goal of the program is to create rapid growth companies and higher paying jobs in Kansas. KTEC’s many programs and affiliate organizations fall into three basic functional areas:
Strategic Research and Development/Centers of Excellence:
Located at the state’s universities, these Centers conduct basic and applied industry-led research that is the foundation for new products and technologies (Example: Higuchi Biosciences Center).
KTEC’S Intense,
Hands-on Business Assistance/Incubators:
Unique public-private partnerships, designed to turn intellectual property and science into businesses and products to sell in the marketplace.
KTEC Investment Funds:
Providing direct equity investment in early-stage technology companies, helping companies acquire the business assistance and capital they need in critical early stages.
As a natural extension to its mission, Kansas looked to KTEC to play a central role to ensure the state is successful in creating a viable bioscience industry. KTEC has been ready, willing and able to serve in this capacity, as biosciences are a natural extension of its mission to support technology-oriented economic development. As a “first step” in its bioscience-specific work, KTEC played a lead role in the development of the Kansas Economic Growth Act (KEGA), which has at its core the statewide Bioscience Initiative. The Bioscience Initiative within KEGA provides a tangible process for promotion and support of the bioscience industry. A funding mechanism in KEGA, tied to growth in the Kansas bioscience industry, is expected to generate $580 million over the next 10 to 12 years without a tax increase.
Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA)In 2004, Kansas enacted the groundbreaking legislation in the Kansas Economic Growth Act which created the Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA) to invest an estimated $580 million in funding to advance the state’s leadership in bioscience research and industry.
The KBA, which is an independent entity governed by an 11-member board of directors composed of prominent local and national leaders in science, technology and business, guides the state’s investment in bioscience by focusing on four key areas:
Building world-class research capacity
Fostering the formation and growth of bioscience startups
Supporting expansion of the state’s bioscience clusters
Facilitating industrial expansion and attraction
The Kansas Legislature has charged the authority with developing and managing specific programs to expand federal R&D investment, commercialize bioscience discoveries and fund equipment and lab space for research.
To fulfill that mission, the Kansas Bioscience Authority is partnering with bioscience companies, research institutions, inventors, entrepreneurs and investment professionals in opportunities that substantially build Kansas’ vibrant bioscience industry.
The KBA offers the following programs:
Kansas Bioscience Eminent Scholars
Kansas Bioscience Rising Stars
Kansas Bioscience Federal Matching
Heartland Ventures
Kansas Bioscience R&D Vouchers
Kansas Bioscience Attraction and Retention
Bioscience Tax Investment Incentives
KansasBioKansasBio is a unified voice for the Kansas bioscience community representing the bioscience research to commercialization process; accelerating the growth of the human, animal, plant and industrial biosciences; enhancing the state's bioscience business and research climate; and attracting and retaining bioscience talent and companies.
KansasBio was founded in 2004 by the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC) and the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute (KCALSI), recognizing the need to unify Kansas' bioscience industry, academic research institutions and economic development organizations.
From Kansas City to Hays, Manhattan to Wichita and Atchison to Garden City, KansasBio represents the bioscience continuum from the university laboratories to the established pharmaceutical, animal health and crop science companies and all the entrepreneurial ventures, start-ups and service providers in the heart of the continuum.
KansasBio member organizations join together with leading companies and research institutions in the state that are shaping the future of Kansas’ bioscience community.
KTEC PIPELINEThe KTEC PIPELINE is designed to identify the state’s best and brightest technology entrepreneurial talent and surround them with the resources, education and networks and that can assist them over their entire career in Kansas.
The KTEC PIPELINE is a first of its kind program in the United States created by the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation’s (KTEC) in an effort to encourage technology-based economic growth in Kansas.
The program works with the participants to enhance the creation and growth of high impact technology business in Kansas – with a special focus on ventures designed to scale and grow into large businesses with positive impact on our Kansas economy.
Each Innovator is provided a stipend of $36,000 for the year. These funds are designed to assist in advancing ventures, subsidizing time spent away at modules and providing a source of funds to pursue projects and research uncovered during the KTEC PIPELINE process.
Kansas Department of CommerceAs the State’s lead economic agency, the Kansas Department of Commerce (Commerce) has a clear mission: to empower individuals, businesses and communities to realize prosperity in Kansas. To this end, Commerce comprises a variety of programs and services that create jobs, attract new investment, provide workforce training, encourage community development\ and sell the state as a wonderful place to travel, live and do business.
The Kansas Department of Commerce works to improve all sectors of the Kansas economy through the creation of jobs and increased capital investment. The Department of Commerce can also help businesses with site location and permitting issues. Find out more about the state incentive programs available (PDF) to your business.