MEXICO, Mo.–Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon visited the site of Soy Labs and the Missouri Plant Science Center (MPSC) on Friday to discuss the importance of the Missouri House passing the Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act (MOSIRA) as part of the Made in Missouri Jobs Package. While touring the facility with Ryan Schmidt, Soy Labs president and other Soy Labs executives, Nixon discussed how MOSIRA and the Made in Missouri Jobs Package will create jobs while ensuring continued fiscal discipline and accountability with taxpayer resources.
"By embracing technology and showing the partnership between higher education, technology and entrepreneurship, it clearly will give us the capacity for the long term future." Nixon said.
The Missouri Senate passed the Made in Missouri Jobs Package on Wed., Sept. 14. As one of the key pillars of the Made in Missouri Jobs Package, MOSIRA will create a funding source to spark growth in research and technology enterprises by capturing a small percentage of the growth in state revenue over a base year from a designated group of Missouri science and innovation companies.
The Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC) will administer the MOSIRA funds. MTC will reinvest the MOSIRA funding through loans and other means to generate further economic growth in the science and innovation industry sectors, with emphasis on biotechnology and life sciences. Funding will be reinvested in a wide range of programs designed to create jobs, nurture start-ups, and bring science and technology companies to the state.
Soy Labs LLC supplies high-quality soy ingredients to health supplement formulators and manufacturers in the nutrition industry. Soy Labs relocated from Fairfield, CA, last year, to be the managing tenant of the MPSC, which is a joint venture of the MTC, the University of Missouri System and the city of Mexico, Mo.
The 25,000-square-foot MPSC is a shared-use facility where researchers work alongside business and industry experts in a multi-disciplinary environment. The center facilitates the collaboration between scientific and entrepreneurial minds to turn the latest research into functional real-world applications and consumer goods.
Soy Labs recently announced a new joint research and development partnership with Missouri-based Reliv International, a direct-selling company that develops, manufactures and markets nutritional products.
