Two Kansas Bioscience Authority committees agreed to make a $1 million direct equity investment to Project Heartland.

KBA staff wouldn’t say what Project Heartland was or release the name of the company that would receive the money.

On Tuesday, the KBA’s investment committee met in executive session to discuss the project. When the committee came out of executive session, they approved the $1 million investment.

Directly after that meeting, the KBA’s executive committee approved the funding for the project.

David Vranicar, KBA’s president for Heartland BioVentures, said the KBA wouldn’t release the name of the company to protect its confidentiality. But he said more details would be released soon.

KBA’s direct equity investment program works with private and accredited investors to make direct equity investments into bioscience startups and companies with high growth potential.

The executive committee also approved funding for three other projects:

l The Kansas University Cancer Center will receive $500,000 to support a $2 million drug-development partnership with the National Institutes of Health and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The partnership will study ways that existing drugs can fight rare blood diseases.

l KBA will provide $4 million to match $12 million the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is spending on Kansas State University’s Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases. The center will study diseases such as Rift Valley fever, avian influenza and foot-and-mouth disease.

l KBA will provide the final $80,000 in the $500,000 investment the organization made with JACAM Chemicals. The money, which was approved in 2006, allows for a completion of a facility in Rice County.

The KBA was created through the Kansas Economic Growth Act of 2004. The act allows the state to invest an anticipated $581 million over 15 years to create bioscience jobs, expand bioscience research and industry, and attract bioscience investments.