Published: December 14, 2008 12:52 am      

Helping people

Benedum Foundation doing its part for residents

FAIRMONT — Through its latest annual report, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation is trying to help people understand the essential role that technology plays in the economy.

The Benedum Foundation, which Michael and Sarah Benedum started in 1944, is a regional independent foundation that covers West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. It’s mission is “to encourage human development” in these regions “through strategically placed charitable resources.”

With its grants programs, the organization funds directly to education, health and human services, community development and economic development. The grants are awarded in an effort to foster particular initiatives.

The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation released its 2007 annual report, titled “Introducing Innovation: Building a Technology-Based Economy,” earlier this month.

“The foundation looks within all the areas that we fund, tries to evaluate which initiatives and opportunities present the most leverage or produce opportunities for either West Virginia or southwestern Pennsylvania that can be built upon (where) we see real merit,” Mary Hunt-Lieving, senior program officer for the foundation, said.

She said the foundation has been making economic development grants for the past six or seven years. West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania have a lot of activity going on in technology-based economic development, especially in the I-79 Corridor.

The foundation looks for ways to build upon the energy and assets that already exist in the region. It wanted to focus on commercialization and research and enhancing opportunities in the area, and was interested in making an initiative and being more attentive with its grant-making, Hunt-Lieving said.

Now, the organization has a strategic initiate for technology-based economic development, which includes the innovators and researchers, research parks and incubation facilities, and venture capitalists and business services, she said.

Hunt-Lieving said the foundation has a lot of partnerships and sees smaller investments as a way to help leverage larger investments and expose itself to other opportunities.

Technology innovations and advancements have always been important to the economies of West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania, she said.

“Innovation is an intangible concept while it’s starting out,” Hunt-Lieving said. “We’re talking about ways to solve problems that are in many cases intangible. We have a lot of entrepreneurial spirit in West Virginia.”

She said it’s important to participate in the modern economy in order to keep up with global competitors. Technology-based economic development also means better paying jobs.

“When you look at more robust wages, you’re able to build a stronger livelihood, so we think that that’s a good investment,” Hunt-Lieving said.

Biometrics and identity management is a huge industry in West Virginia and has great potential. The state is a real leader in this field, where there are many opportunities for economic development, she said.

Hunt-Lieving said the annual report is an effort to make people aware of innovation in the economy and the challenges that the region faces. The publication includes stories about discoveries happening “in our backyard” and information about real entrepreneurs and businesses. The report shows how people have benefited from the programs that the Benedum Foundation supports.

TechConnect West Virginia is an effort to promote the state’s innovation economy, which is based off of research.

“Our intent was to put together an organization that can provide support for those technology entrepreneurs,” Russ Lorince, director of economic development at West Virginia University and chair of TechConnect West Virginia, said.

TechConnect, registered as a state and federal nonprofit, has been meeting for about four years but only became a formal organization a little more than a year ago, he said. TechConnect includes universities, inventors and investors in West Virginia.

Lorince said the Benedum Foundation was “absolutely essential” in the formation and funding of TechConnect. Hunt-Lieving and William Getty, president of the foundation, provided beneficial leadership and had a very clear vision that the activity in West Virginia needed support and more manpower.

The foundation’s annual report identifies four areas where West Virginia has a combination of research activity and commercialism that will allow the state to compete, he said. These technology platforms are advanced energy and related technologies, advanced materials, security sensing and identification technologies, and biosciences.

TechConnect has chosen two of the platforms to start working on. Lorince said the organization felt that advanced energy and security sensing were the areas that had the most immediate activity. TechConnect is creating a strategic plan for investment, which is currently in draft form, that “hopefully will provide a good road map for the state as a whole,” he said.

The state really has to be actively involved in research in order to compete, Lorince said.

“Globally, the economies have been moving toward more knowledge-based activity,” he said. “The wave of the future and the wave of the present is more and more innovative to create new (ideas and concepts).”

For more information or to access the annual report, visit benedum.org.

E-mail Jessica Legge at jlegge@timeswv.com.