2017 MSU Product Center Annual Report
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EmailTo Our Stakeholders:
In reflecting upon my first year at the MSU Product Center, above all, I am very grateful to have the opportunity to work with you and with the center’s terrific staff. So much of our success is attributable to our internal and external funders and partners:
- The many MSU faculty and specialists,who assist our clients with addressing a host of needs
- Our many external stakeholders, who foster both entrepreneurs and the Product Center
- Our MSU funders and partners: AgBioResearch, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, Center for Regional Food Systems, MSU Extension, MSU Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Program, Project GREEEN, and the university itself
- Our external funders and partners: Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Michigan Farm Bureau, Michigan Integrated Food and Farming Systems, U.S. Economic Development Administration, USDA Rural Development and our many other large and small friends and partners
Thank you!
The Product Center is a values-driven organization – a social enterprise. Our passion is improving the lives of our clients by helping them to start and grow successful businesses in the food, agriculture and natural resources sectors and contributing to the well-being of all the people of Michigan through our economic impact. Our staff is truly a group that works with their hands, heads and hearts. My thanks and admiration for the everyday miracles you perform to:
- Our campus staff, which helps clients with feasibility studies, food safety, labeling, market analysis, monitoring and evaluation, product testing, research, and scaling larger enterprises as well as staging major events such as Making It In Michigan
- The innovation counselors, who provide business coaching in the field to agricultural and food product businesses throughout Michigan
All of these individuals and organizations have contributed to a strong Fiscal Year 2016-17 as evidenced by our impact metrics. (See the summary table.)
In this year’s report, you will find the details of the activities that underlie our success, including:
- Our venture development, specialized services, strategic research, and cooperative development service lines •
- The funding and approval of our Food Processing and Innovation Center (FPIC), which celebrated the start of construction with a groundbreaking ceremony in May
- Our strategic research services, including those of the Center for Economic Analysis
- The Making It In Michigan Conference and Trade Show
- Our award-winning clients
Our successes in FY 2016-17 have paved the way for a very exciting FY 2017-18. In November 2017, we will celebrate the 10th annual Making It In Michigan. In December 2017, construction will be complete on the FPIC, and in early 2018, it will welcome its first clients. We look forward to telling you all about these things, and more, in our next annual report.
Thomas. S. Lyons, Ph.D.
Director, MSU Product Center Food • Ag • Bio
