Earlier this week, the Delaware Innovation Valley Network (DVIN) announced its first innovation grant award: The Wistar Institute will receive $89,000 to support the Wistar Biomedical Technician Training (BTT) Program, a two-year workforce development program in the biosciences. Wistar is partnering with the Community College of Philadelphia.

Here's a description of the course:

Biomedical Technician Training

BTT 101
Biomedical Technician Training Practicum
0-0-35-3
Hands-on experience with data record keeping, laboratory tasks and routines, and the use and maintenance of lab equipment and reagents. Includes 345 hours of in-depth skills training in various resource laboratories at The Wistar Institute or a comparable research laboratory. Prerequisite: Permission of the Biomedical Training Academic Coordinator and completion of the Orientation to Biomedical Technology.

You can read more from a press release here.

On July 1, DVIN completed the second round for proposals for the Innovation Investment Fund, which will provide more than $2.4 million in funds over the next three years to support training and capacity building programs in the life sciences workforce in the Delaware Valley, a 14 county region.

You can find a copy of the DVIN Investment Guidelines as an attachment to this post.

Mary Ellen Clark, WIRED Bio-1 and Aaron Fichter, Ph.D, Heldrich Center for Workforce Development take a look at how to measure the effectiveness of your implementation strategies.

Some of the key questions addressed include:

1. Are you feeling any pain over the time/resources it takes to collect data and report on it?
2. Are you confident the data you report is accurate

Bio-1 is in Central New Jersey, and comprises 5 counties and 4 workforce investment boards. Some initiatives they have focused on include: life science career campaign, career academies, residential programs, increasing bioscience workforce development with the 'Flak Jackets to Lab Coats' program to reintegrate returning vets into the workforce, enhancing linkages between education and industry via the web.

Metrics Steps:

Plan and Prepare (critical few, leverage/impact), Develop a Framework (strategy/alignment, balance, data collection), Development (Strategy ALignment,Balance, Op. Definitions), Deployment (Vertical alignment, accountability transfer), Collect and Analyze Data (Review Process, Actions, Project ID), Review Process (status, opportunities, projects), Plan and Prepare (Strategic Objectives, Development Team).

Operational Definitions:

Measure Owner: Who will report on this metric

Data Owner:  Who will collect and summarize data

Formula: How is this derived?

Benchmark/Goal: What is the target? If you have benchmarks from comparable regions include them here.

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