Utah Legislature Appropriates $600,000 to support BioHive initiative

March 11, 2021

On the last day of the Utah legislative session, the legislature passed SB 2 “New Fiscal Year Supplemental Appropriations Act”.   Among the items funded was $600,000 to support the BioHive branding initiative.  In SB 3 entitled “Appropriations Adjustments” the language makes clear that the amount of the $600,000 to be released is dependent on 1:1 matching from the industry.  The funds will be administered through Governors Office of Economic Development (GOED).

Katelin Roberts, Interim Executive Director of BioHive, commented, “We couldn’t be more pleased that the legislature recognized the significant contributions of the life sciences industry to Utah’s economic success both now and in the future.  This appropriation will help us work closely with GOED to keep the momentum going in the Utah life sciences community which is one of the fastest growing in the entire country. “

The request for this appropriation was initiated by BioHive and supported by BioUtah and GOED.  Representative Brad Last sponsored the request.  GOED believes the BioHive initiative provides a tactical approach to achieving the state’s strategic goal of advancing economic development in the life sciences industry which is one of the target industries identified in the Strategic Industry Advancement portion of Governor Cox’s One Utah Roadmap.  The industry match was a particularly compelling element to winning the support of GOED.

BioHive is an initiative of BioUtah designed to brand the life sciences industry both in and out of the state of Utah.  It is not required that companies be a member of BioUtah to benefit from BioHive.  Any company that operates in the life sciences arena or services companies that do are part of BioHive.  For more information on this important BioUtah initiative go to www.biohive.com.