Wichita ? Wichita’s aerospace legacy of strong engineering and skilled workers puts the city in a good position to take advantage of a new state initiative that encourages growth in the bioscience industry, a consultant says.

Wichita may lag behind the Kansas City area in the development of life sciences, but it surges ahead in engineering, Richard Seline said Thursday at a Wichita conference. The South Central Region Bioscience and Innovation Summit addressed the region’s opportunities in biosciences development. It’s among six summits on the topic statewide.

Seline, founder of Washington, D.C.-based New Economy Strategies, is nationally respected for his expertise in technology-based economic development. He was hired by the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp. to help Kansas develop a strategic plan for the state’s bioscience initiative.

KTEC is state-owned and was established to promote Kansas’ economic development in advanced technology. The bioscience initiative, which will invest about $500 million in building the state’s bioscience industry and research base during the next 10 years, was signed into law last April.

One of Seline’s suggestions for the Wichita area: Develop medical devices and instruments using advanced-materials research gleaned from the aircraft industry.

He said the new initiative should help already-existing companies, not just new ones.

“We’re looking at a broader approach to this than drugs and pharmaceuticals for a reason,” he said. “Kansas ain’t gonna be the pharmaceutical capital of the country.”

Tracy Taylor, president and chief executive of KTEC, also spoke at the summit Thursday. He said a perfect example building on Seline’s suggestion was a joint effort by Wichita State University and PriVia, the Research Centers at Via Christi, to apply lessons learned about air and fluid flow in aerospace engineering to develop a computer model of blood flow in the human body.

“That’s a project that we support completely,” Taylor said.

In need of a plan

Seline told the audience Kansas lagged far behind other states in attracting federal research dollars and lacked a long-range plan to change that.

The state must design a plan to secure research funding instead of relying on politicians to form one, Seline said.

“There is no federal funding strategy in Kansas, at all,” he said. “Get a clue.”

Attendees of the Wichita summit expressed frustration at the amount of time that already had lapsed with no clear understanding of how the state bioscience initiative would work. There seems to be no clear definition of what a “bioscience” business is, they concluded.

Medical, drug and biotechnology research seem to be obvious fits. But participants wondered about other ventures, such as development of biofuels, microbial waste control products, seed research, and nutraceutical and pharmaceutical crops.

Kansasbio, a supporting organization founded this year by KTEC and the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, is intended to be a voice for the industry. It defines biosciences as human, plant, animal and industry applications of biology and science.

Higher education needs

Wichita State faculty attending the meeting expressed concern about a need for more doctoral programs in the sciences at WSU. Those programs could mean more research funding for the university.

“We also need to create an atmosphere where everyone looks at Wichita State as a strong science university,” said Charles Fox, associate dean for academic affairs and research in the College of Health Professions.

WSU has several doctoral degrees in engineering and in chemistry. The highest degree offered in biology is a master’s.