UNL, private sector talent connect at Innovation Campus

Shane Farritor first built things as a child in his family’s hardware store in Ravenna, Nebraska. His inclination toward tinkering is just as strong today — and he knows he’s not alone in his home state.

“Nebraska is full of makers,” Farritor says. “It’s one of the things I respect most about the state.”

Nebraska Innovation Campus wins $750,000 grant to help provide lab space for startups

By Martha Stoddard / World-Herald Bureau

LINCOLN — The Nebraska Innovation Campus has won a competitive federal grant to help nurture biotechnology startup companies by providing laboratory space.

Officials announced the $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration on Wednesday.

It will be matched with an equal amount of University of Nebraska-Lincoln funds to build and equip wet laboratories for lease by fledgling companies.

At UNL, Madeleine Albright discusses how food-rich America can help feed the world

Food security is not just about politics or economics, according to Madeleine Albright. For Americans, feeding the world is a moral imperative.

Albright was at the University of Nebraska’s Innovation Campus on Monday as the keynote speaker for the Food Factory of the Future conference. Albright was named U.S. Secretary of State in 1997, the first woman to hold that position and the highest-ranking woman in U.S. government at the time. She now teaches at Georgetown University and leads a global strategy firm.

NU's Innovation Campus to host packaged Korean food producer's research HQ

LINCOLN — On land once famed for food on a stick, an Omaha entrepreneur declared Monday that she’s hoping to put kimchi on a shelf.

Suji Park, founder and “chief inspirational officer” of Suji’s Cuisine USA, announced that the company will soon open a modest research and development division at Nebraska Innovation Campus. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln technology park occupies the former location of the Nebraska State Fair.

World-Herald editorial: Right vision for NU's Innovation Campus project

Innovation Campus is the University of Nebraska’s commendable effort to create a world-class scientific research park on the former Nebraska State Fairgrounds.

Rather than blindly copying what’s being done in, say, Massachusetts or North Carolina, Innovation Campus is rightly building on Nebraska’s proven strengths.

The point isn’t gargantuan size. Instead, it’s quality and specialization, using sound long-term planning and a phased approach to construction.

Nebraska Innovation Campus ahead of its timetable for completion

By Natasha Rausch / World-Herald bureau

LINCOLN — The former State Fair Park is gone. In its place sits three state-of-the-art buildings that mark a new era of engineering and science at the Nebraska Innovation Campus, where private and public sectors will combine to create new technology near the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Construction began in 2013, and now the campus has 380,000 of the 2.2 million square feet covered, with $120 million spent.

Executive Director Dan Duncan said the goal is to have the project completed by 2038.