Central Michigan University Research Corps. budget augmented by state award totaling $100,000

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The Central Michigan University Research Corp. will have a little more room in its budget to help entrepreneurs thanks to a $100,000 award.

CMU-RC, 2625 Denison Drive, received the 21st Century Jobs Fund Business Incubator Award on Feb. 10 along with eight other SmartZone universities from the Michigan Strategic Fund, funded through the Michigan legislature.

“There was a competitive bid process,” said Erin Strang, president and CEO of CMU-RC.

The state appropriated $1.3 million to the business incubator program in September 2010. The MSF Board allocated the funds on a competitive basis to one program in eight select counties and two qualifying cities.

Businesses in the advanced automotive, manufacturing, alternative energy, homeland security and defense and life sciences fields will benefit specifically from the funding.

Strang said CMU-RC provides services for startup companies to promote economic development in the mid-Michigan region.

A non-profit, CMU-RC is one of 15 total SmartZones in Michigan which provide an incubator to assist companies and entrepreneurs in building business structures and growth.

The idea is that the SmartZones would leverage university resources to help the communities to create business and ultimately to create jobs, Strang said.

CMU-RC has two types of programs it offers to clients; one of which is the tenant program in which companies reside in the building and receive help from the CMU-RC to begin, Strang said.

“The front part of our building is office space, the back part of our building is wet laboratory space, so there’s biology labs and chemistry labs available,” she said.

Strang said not all incubators have these types of resources.

“We provide very different … hands-on services,” she said.

CMU-RC employs a full-time staff of four that works out of the 27,000 square-foot building.

The other program that CMU-RC provides is the affiliate program.

“We provide different business services … such as business development (and) product development to companies that are not in this building,” Strang said.

Resource Manager Ginny Haight manages the building and works with tenants who have building needs.

The award is a great boon for the incubator, Haight said.

“We need to be self-sustaining, but it’s difficult for incubators to do that,” she said. “So if we’re going to be able to help our clients, the extra funding is going to be real helpful to us.”

Strang said CMU-RC’s challenge is not being able to do more self-promotion because of the small staff and the amount of work it puts in.

“We hope that our companies that succeed can tell our story for us,” she said.