AMES, Iowa — In an effort to help make the Ames-Des Moines corridor in central Iowa an agricultural and manufacturing hub, Iowa State University officials recently announced plans to hire more than 200 faculty members who will emphasize biotechnology.

“Agriculture and agriculture-related businesses are a key driver of the state’s economy, so it makes sense to focus on those areas as a source of additional economic development,” Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey said Friday.

“Iowa State has been a tremendous asset for the region and the entire state, and the recent announcement that they will be adding additional facility focused on biotechnology will only help the state’s economy.”

In a speech to the Iowa Innovation Council (IIC) in Des Moines in May, ISU President Steven Leath said although North Carolina was one of the first to design a park – the 38,000-employee Triangle Research Park, built in 1959 – central Iowa is in a better position to create a biotechnology park, now known as the newly-proposed Capital Park.

“North Carolina didn’t have nearly the assets in place that Iowa has,” he told the crowd. “We have a great university, great community colleges, great companies. What North Carolina had was the collaboration of many across the state. I’m sensing the same thing here and I’m excited by that.”

While Leath said he admired North Carolina’s model, the one thing that differentiates it from central Iowa is it “didn’t have an already heavily-developed area with interstate highway, airports, universities and community colleges and utilities already in place, as does central Iowa’s proposed Capital Corridor, to be formally named later.”

To The Des Moines Register he added, “Leaders are still deciding what firms the area would try to attract or expand, and in what industries, but biosciences are expected to be in the early mix.”

“The first 15 to 20 years the Research Triangle looked like southern pine woods,” Leath said. “You pretty much had to be a pioneer to be there.” He told the Burlington Hawk Eye he plans to use positions left open by retirements, and those financed by private companies and grants, to help create the commercial corridor.

“One thing I want to do is to make sure they are organized hires, cluster hires, so we can really make an impact in some areas,” Leath said in a May 28 interview with The Register.

After the announcement, some Iowans raised concerns that Leath’s part in building central Iowa as the biotechnology hub might jeopardize ISU’s traditional role of serving all of Iowa’s 99 counties. But Leath, who became ISU’s 15th president on Jan. 16, told the audience at the IIC meeting that it wouldn’t threaten the university’s original outreach mission.

“I am out listening now,” he said of his recent tour of cities such as Spencer, Nashua, Muscatine, Council Bluffs and Atlantic, and other parts of the state. “We’re not solely focused on this area of the state.”

Educated and trained as a plant scientist, Leath said ISU, with strengths in sciences, engineering and veterinary medicine, will also be working in conjunction with the University of Northern Iowa, the state’s community colleges and the University of Iowa on many technology matters.