InnovATEBIO and the Bio-Link Community
Education Center: The InnovATEBIO National Center for Biotechnology Education. The Center is located at Austin Community College, Texas. Partnering organizations and institutions are Forsyth Technical Community College, North Carolina; DNA Learning Center, New York; Finger Lakes Community College, New York; Digital World Biology, Washington; and BABEC in California. InnovATEBIO is supported by a five-year ATE (below) national center grant (NSF DUE 1901984). The InnovATEBIO National Biotechnology Education Center is working to advance the education of highly skilled technicians for the nation's biotechnology workforce. Toward this goal, InnovATEBIO is providing leadership in biotechnology technician education, including support for development and sharing of best practices and emerging technologies in biotechnology workforce development.
Brief History: From 1998 to 2018, Bio-Link was the Next Generation National Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Center of Excellence for Biotechnology and Life Sciences (DUE 9850325, DUE 0118933, DUE 0402139, DUE 0903317, DUE1400721). In summer of 2018, Digital World Biology, a Bio-Link partner of 10 years, was awarded an NSF ATE grant (A Bridge to Bio-Link's Future, DUE 1764225) to continue managing the suite of Bio-Link.org resources. InnovATEBIO will support the expansion of these resources in order to grow and maintain Bio-Link as the core digital resource through the new center. By maintaining these valuable resources, InnovATEBIO will be able to continue to offer a platform to host the Biotechnology Program and Affiliate pages for its members, along with Courses in a Box and other content. Members will also continue to be able to provide content via blogs, conference presentations, publications, and event postings. Members will be alerted to new content and community activities via the newsletter.
The InnovATEBIO community enhances biotechnology education programs by providing cutting edge professional development for instructors, by improving curriculum, by members making use of technologies, and by creating a system for sharing information among its targeted audiences of community college biotechnology programs, faculty, administrators, students, alumni, trade organizations, and industry.
Most importantly, InnovATEBIO continues to support a cadre of well-trained instructors and is helping to increase the number and quality of biotechnology education programs. InnovATEBIO helps introduce a wide range of underrepresented students to biotechnology, by helping them acquire the knowledge and skills essential to the field and advance their education in math, science, and engineering.
Goals of the Center:
- Develop a collaborative infrastructure that supports innovation, and promptly addresses the needs of the biotechnology community.
- Coordinate and leverage outputs from ATE-funded biotechnology projects identifying opportunities to generate partnerships and collaborations that accelerate innovation in biotechnology education.
- Monitor and address emerging biotechnology industry and technician workforce trends.
- Develop a regional outreach and mentoring infrastructure to broadly engage underserved populations in biotech labs and emerging technologies.
