Despite a mediocre past and an uncertain future, the Lawrence Regional Technology Center tries to help high-tech companies produce well-paying jobs.

“There is more activity now than there has ever been,” said Matthew McClorey, president and chief executive officer of the LRTC.

McClorey assumed his position in June to lead the group that is designed to provide services and resources to high-tech start-up companies, especially those connected with Kansas University.

His arrival followed years of low activity at the center, which was formerly known as Kansas Innovation Corp.

LRTC is one of five technology incubators that receives state funding from the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp., also known as KTEC.

In the current fiscal year, LRTC received $310,000 from KTEC.

But with the state’s budget problems, that level of future funding was in jeopardy. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ budget proposed a 6.8 percent cut in economic funds that flowed into KTEC.

“We’re going to receive a significant budget cut this next fiscal year, starting July 1,” McClorey said. “It will be a huge challenge, a tough time for us. When they cut our budget, that’s fewer resources that we have to offer to the companies.”

It couldn’t come at a worse time, said McClorey, who comes to the LRTC as a former vice president of business development and portfolio management at KTEC.

Matthew McClorey, president and chief executive officer of Lawrence Regional Technology Center, continues to increase its number of active clients.

LRTC is building momentum, having increased its number of active clients from one to nine.

“We have grown the client base quite a bit,” he said. “The big thing in transitioning from the prior management team has been improving relationships with the city, Kansas University, the county and Chamber of Commerce.

“The prior management team did not perform up to the expectations of all the stakeholders and clients. We’ve been putting the relationships back on strong footing.”

McClorey said one of his major goals was to get a building of about 10,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet, which would more than triple the size of the center’s existing offices at 1617 St. Andrews Drive.

“The whole premise and value of the incubator is if you all locate in the same building and you can share the same costs,” he said, referring to a low-cost office, lab and research space.

The organization received $450,000 in the mid-1990s from the city and county to fund the startup of an incubator site. The site never materialized and the fund has grown to about $600,000 with interest.

McClorey said he hoped to have a new location sometime this year, although the proposed budget cuts “threw the financial projections out the window.”

He said the expected budget cuts would hit in July. “It’s a real shame because we have come an awful long way in the short time we’ve been here and now we are going to have less to work with,” he said.

LRTC’s clients include:

• Admunex Therapeutics Inc., a spin-off from the Higuchi Biosciences Center at KU that is developing technologies to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
• BioComp Systems Inc., another spin-off from KU that is developing a cost-effective, three-dimensional information display system that could be used for medical imaging, aviation, engineering and video gaming.
• BioScience Innovations Inc., a manufacturer of antibodies and biosensors used for cellular biology applications.
• CritiTech Inc., a spin-off from the Higuchi Biosciences Center that conducts research and development into the production of fine-particle compounds.
• Deciphera Pharmaceuticals Inc., a drug discovery and development company.
• Flint Hills Scientific L.L.C., a spin-off from KU that specializes in the development of advanced algorithms for use in real-time analysis of complex brain waves and other biologic signals.
• Griffin Technologies L.L.C., a leading provider of information security solutions for software protection and user authentication.
• GreenSoft Solutions Inc., which develops custom software and provides information technology consulting.