By Anna Simon
STAFF WRITER

CLEMSON -- Clemson University broke ground Thursday for an innovation center expected to spawn high tech jobs and spur the Upstate economy.

Located in Clemson’s Advanced Materials Center, formerly Clemson Research Park on State 187 just off Interstate 85, the center will be both an incubator and a “world class facility, said Clemson President Jim Barker.

It provides “a critical next step in transferring the technology to the marketplace,” Barker said.

The complex, expected to be completed by August 2009, “make that link so new companies can be created,” Barker said.

Barker is building on the strength of synergy to be created by a spectacular facility, respected researchers already here and more that that Clemson hopes to attract, and the location.

The location midway between Atlanta and Charlotte on the I-85 corridor is “in middle of the eighth largest regional economy in the world,” Barker said.

The new facility will boost the local economy bringing continued growth and jobs, said Sandra Gantt, a Pendleton Town Council member who attended the groundbreaking.

Duke Energy and AdvanceSC each contributed leadership and $1 million toward the innovation center, said Chris Przirembel, Clemson’s vice president for Research and Economic Development.

Ellen Ruff, president of Duke Energy Carolinas, said “it was such an obvious thing that we needed to do” at a time of downturn in the textile industry.

“When I visit with customers, they make it clear that for manufacturing to thrive in the region, they must have a strong academic knowledge base, a well-trained workforce and reliable cost effective energy,” Ruff said. “This initiative brings those three priorities together.”

Carol Burdette, president of the Advance SC board, said the advanced materials field has been an asset to the area.

The site is next to Clemson’s Advanced Materials Laboratory that houses the university’s state-of-the-art electron microscope, and the South Carolina Research Authority plans to build a classified research facility on adjacent property.

The cluster is expected to help draw the research talent and new businesses on photonics and other advanced materials fields that already have yielded economic benefits.

Advanced materials research accounts for more than $100 million in external funding since 2005 and has comprised nearly a third of the university’s external research dollars over past four years, Barker said.

In addition, seven new companies have formed form Clemson innovations in advanced materials in the last two years, Barker said.

“It is vital to Clemson University and it is vital to our economy,” Barker said.

The state has provided $5 million toward construction of the facility and Innovate Anderson, a public-private economic development partnership purchased the remaining property in the Advanced Materials Center to recruitment and development of advanced materials related businesses.

The facility will help Anderson County, the region and the state, said Mike Panasko, president of Innovate Anderson.

The location in the I-85 corridor is “in middle of the eighth largest regional economy in the world,” Barker said.