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THE SC RESEARCH AUTHORITY is South Carolina's best-kept $6.9 billion secret.
With more than 400 programs exploring everything from anti-gravity brain behavior to fighter jet doors, SCRA has helped to create more than 15,000 jobs since its inception in 1983. The organization's subtle hand has guided the growth of South Carolina's burgeoning knowledge economy, returning $1.2 billion annually on a minimal one-time investment. However, due in part to its vast scope and complex projects, SCRA remains an enigma to many business leaders.
"SCRA is a bit of mystery," conceded Marvin Davis, SCRA vice president of property and asset management. It's intangible. "You can't kick it or touch it like a car."
And yet, the work of SCRA drives some of South Carolina's most important spheres of influence, from business and industry to government and academics.
BRINGING A BUSINESS APPROACH TO RESEARCH
SCRA calls itself a public applied research and development company with core competencies in building collaborations, managing research and development (R&D) programs, and developing technology road maps. But that's just mission-statement lingo for transforming cool, high-tech science into high-paying local industries. SCRA doesn't single-handedly make the discoveries, fund the projects, or bring them to market - but it recognizes their potential and serves as the glue throughout the tumultuous commercialization process.
"We put basic research and applied research together in a pre-commercial phase," said Bill Mahoney, SCRA's chief executive officer, who brings a silicon startup mentality to the organization. Created with a one-time land grant and $500,000, SCRA was forged with an independent spirit and assumed a collaborative, corporate structure to fund itself.
"Because we're not funded by annual state appropriation, we have to win competitive contracts," Mahoney said. "That gives us a unique advantage because we have to pick the things that work."
Taking a page from Fortune 500 organizational charts, SCRA created an Asset Sector for supporting infrastructure, a Public Interest Research Sector for propelling innovation, and a Federal Sector for nurturing federal/corporate collaboration.
SCRA has become so integral to U.S. government research that the Federal Sector actually has three independent arms: The Advanced Technology Institute (ATI), the Institute for Solutions Generation (ISG), and the Applied Research and Development Institute (ARDI).
Like any major conglomerate, SCRA treats each component like a separate...