South Dakota’s Biotech Industry is prospering in the new millennium and with concerted efforts to recruit Biotech establishments, and the recent announcement of the DUSEL project locating in the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, this industry will continue to prosper.
In 2006, the number of Biotech companies in South Dakota passed 150.
In 2006, the number of Biotech employees in South Dakota passed 3,000 (over 350 were added from 2005-2006 alone, a 13.0% increase).
Other activities in the Biotech Industry in the past few years include:
The Homestake Mine will be converted (announced July 10, 2007) into the deepest underground lab in the world, a project undertaken by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The South Dakota Public University system added 12 new PhD programs (since 2005).
The most recent NSF rankings indicated that South Dakota had the second highest increase of Industry-financed R&D expenditures at Colleges and Universities (91.29% increase).
Additionally, those same rankings also indicated that South Dakota had the highest increase in Academic R&D Expenditures (106.2% increase).
$400 million dollars was donated by T. Denny Sanford of South Dakota to the Sioux Valley Hospital System (now Sanford Health) for R&D efforts and to establish a children’s hospital.
Money was pledged by the Great Plains Education Foundation to connect South Dakota’s University System to the National Research Network (Internet2). The REED network will be a high-speed network that will connect South Dakota's six public universities to the rest of the nation, allowing easier collaboration on research projects with partner universities.
