University Medical Devices Center gets $1M grant

Heather Beckius
Minnesota Public Radio

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A million-dollar grant is awarded to the University of Minnesota to expand one of its facilities.

Awarded by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, the grant will be used to expand the university's Medical Devices Center, which has outgrown its current space. The facility turns research ideas into marketable products.

Arthur Erdman, director of the center said the additional space will be used to help develop new medical technology.

"The medical devices center has been the location where we can take new ideas and kind of dream about how to put it together with the needs that we hear from our medical professionals," Erdman said.

The $2-million expansion will more than double the size of the Medical Devices Center. The state grant will pay for about half of the new facility. The university will contribute the remainder.

"I really think this is an example of how the state government through the DEED office and the university can work together to really stimulate a very strong segment of the state of Minnesota economy," Erdman said.