The state recently awarded Cheyney University a $5 million grant through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP).
The program supports critical expansion projects, provides job creation and employment training opportunities, and contributes to community revitalization.
Funding will be used for the university’s ThinkUbator initiative, a biotech incubator project that will offer biologics, cell, and gene therapy companies the opportunity to pursue their science in a campus setting. The initiative will lease process development and wet lab space.
Specifically, the university will use the funding to help renovate the university’s Duckrey building infrastructure. It will recruit businesses during construction.
“The companies already operating on our campus working with our student interns provided proof that our concept works for all parties, the university, the students, and the businesses,” Cheyney President Aaron A. Walton said. “The businesses we have brought onto our campus and into our lab space have a real interest in being here. This grant from the (Tom) Wolf Administration gives us a major spark to continue to expand on that model in a more robust way.”
A regional bioscience center will help attract high-achieving students and increase current enrollment, Walton said.
RACP has awarded Cheyney University $12.5 million in the past two years.