Excerpted from BioForward.org

Twenty Wisconsin bioscience companies, including 16 from the Madison Region, have been awarded scholarships to participate fully in the 2013 Biotechnology Industry Organization’s (BIO) International Convention. All recipients plan to participate in BIO’s partnering events: a one-on-one match-making venue expressly designed to help companies achieve strategic business goals in a time and cost effective way.

The grant fund was assembled by BioForward, and includes funds provided by Marshfield Clinic, Madison Gas & Electric, MadREP, University Research Park, and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. Scholarship recipients are small bioscience businesses exhibiting a solid technology, strategic approach to participation at BIO 2013, and financial need.

Scholarship recipients from the Madison Region are:

• Anavox/US FoodPharma
• BB Pharma
• C56 Technologies
• Cellara
• Centrose
• DNASTAR
• Esotech
• GenTel Laboratories LLC
• ioGenetics
• Intuitive
• InvivoSciences
• NeuroSolis
• PeptiMed
• Primorigen Biosciences
• Quintessence
• StableBody

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Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Rob Schultz

A big reason Klondike Cheese Co. has found success and earned so much respect for its quality products over the years is the refusal of its owners to play it safe.

The architects of Klondike’s rich history are the Buholzer family, four generations strong that have turned a tiny Swiss-cheesemaking company into a world-class operation making award-winning feta, Muenster, brick and havarti cheeses.

And, starting later this month, it will add Greek-style yogurt to its production line. It’s a product dairy experts believe could turn out to be a major game changer for the dairy industry in Wisconsin.

“There’s a lot of similar chemistry and a lot of similar artistry to cheesemaking that goes into this product. It could be the future for the state,” said John Umhoefer, the executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. “There are a lot of people who are watching this very closely.”

The Buholzers, led by brothers Ron, Steve and Dave, are following a path similar to the one Hamdi Ulukaya took eight years ago when the New York cheesemaker started Chobani, which is credited with starting a Greek yogurt surge in the United States.

Another popular Greek yogurt brand, Fage, also has its main production facility in New York, which, like Wisconsin, is a strong dairy state.

The success of those two brands help explain why national retail sales of Greek yogurt jumped to $821 million in the 12 months ending in October 2011, according to a New York Times report.

Greek yogurt represents 28 percent of U.S. yogurt production, a 12 percent increase from 2010 and a 25 percent increase from 2009, according to a Wall Street Journal report last year. The category is expected to grow 40 percent this year and 120 percent over the next five years.

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Excerpted from InWisconsin.com

Liberty Business Park in Verona, Wis., was designated a ‘Certified in Wisconsin’ development-ready site today by Governor Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).

“This certification will help Verona attract new businesses to its community by having its 130-acre site, part of the 217-acre business park, certified as development-ready,” said Governor Walker. “This site certification is just one more economic development tool to accelerate business start-up and growth in Verona and in Wisconsin.”

A certified site is a development-ready site that has been reviewed and approved by WEDC as meeting certain development criteria. The certification provides businesses, consultants and developers with detailed information about the site.

This is the third certified site in Dane County. WEDC certified the Fitchburg Technology Campus II and DeForest Business Park in December. In addition to these three, WEDC has designated Certified in Wisconsin sites in Beaver Dam, Beloit, Chippewa Falls, Village of Howard, Janesville, Menomonie, Prescott and West Bend. WEDC is expected to certify approximately 30 development-ready sites over the next three years.

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Excerpted from Janesville Gazette
By Neil Johnson

Edgerton High School’s Pipeline to Employment, the district’s new intern partnership with area manufacturers, might soon need a new name.

Instead of a pipeline, it’s becoming a multi-lane highway for students to learn trades and gain job skills.

Since it started last fall, the internship and training program has been turning heads locally as more industries in and around Edgerton jump on board. It’s also grabbed the attention of state officials.

Monday, Republican Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch visited the tech ed department at Edgerton High School. Kleefisch also accompanied Edgerton school officials and a handful of students during tours of Edgerton Gear and Componex, two Edgerton industries that participate in Pipeline to Employment.

About a half-dozen companies have hired as paid interns a few Edgerton High School students who the companies say fit the mold of employees they’d put on the fast track. The students are well rounded in math, science and English; they communicate well; and most of all, the companies say, they’re interested in careers in manufacturing.

The program is designed to funnel students toward manufacturing careers and, for some employers, to create an employment farm system that includes training for specific skills and reimbursement for college coursework and technical training.

Kleefisch’s visit allowed the school district to put a spotlight on a style of partnership that Edgerton Gear owner Dave Hataj said reminds him of how industry worked decades ago, when his father, the late Dick Hataj, founded his company.

Hataj said the company is looking to the program to narrow the so-called skills gap—the lack of enough skilled laborers—that employers say has made it tough to expand in a tepid economic recovery.

But he said local employers also are trying to shatter high school students’ perception that manufacturing is dirty, unskilled work.

“Our role is to elevate the status of manufacturing,” he said.

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Excerpted from Janesville Gazette
By Gina Duwe

A private group hopes to build a regional agricultural events and education center in Evansville that also could host the Rock County 4-H Fair and Blackhawk Technical College agriculture courses.

Southern Wisconsin Agricultural Group last year paid $2.17 million for 217 acres at the southeastern corner of Highway 14 and County M on Evansville’s east side.

If SWAG can raise at least $25 million, it plans to build an agricultural education and innovation complex. It would focus on educating people about and engaging them in agriculture and promoting and protecting the industry.

“The ag industry has relied on people who don’t understand the ag industry to tell the story for years and years and years,” said Kevin Klahn, vice president of the group’s board. “It’s time for us to be proactive and tell our story … in a positive way and help people understand.”

Board members of the group met with The Gazette to share their vision.

About 40 acres would be used for commercial development, and 80 to 100 acres would be dedicated to agriculture activities. The rest would remain working farmland for test plots and future growth.

Commercial development could include a retail store, restaurants or a hotel.

“It’s likely to be businesses that complement the project, but we don’t know specifically,” said board member John Morning, an Evansville developer with a history in agriculture.

SWAG sees potential to showcase Wisconsin products or feature menus of Wisconsin food.

The commercial development could generate more than 300 jobs, said Kennan Wood, of Wood Communications Group, which was hired by the agriculture group to help with the project. Commercial developments could increase the city’s tax base by $30 million to $35 million, he said.

That doesn’t take into account the regional effect of visitors spending money during their trips, sales tax and hotel taxes, Morning said.

The project hinges on a fundraising feasibility study, measuring whether enough money could be raised to move ahead. The study is expected to be done in spring, and if everything moves along, groundbreaking could be sometime in 2014. The hope is to get financial help from agribusinesses and agriculture associations across the state.

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