A recent article, published in the Cardinal News, discusses a funding proposal for “Virginia’s Research Triangle” initiative in Roanoke, Richmond, and Charlottesville, Virginia. Governor Glenn Youngkin has proposed a $90 million one-time funding for the initiative to lay the “groundwork for startup innovation and commercialization.” The initiative will include the Roanoke-based Fralin Biomedical Research Institute (FBRI) at Virginia Tech, receiving $27 million of the fund.

Earlier this year, the FBRI received a $50 million gift from Richmond-based Red Gates Foundation. In 2018, WRVB attorney Neil Birkhoff worked with Heywood Fralin and the Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust in implementing the first $50 million gift to the FBRI. WRVB attorney Fourd Kemper, the chair of the firm’s Emerging Growth practice group, has worked closely with several start-up business entities spinning off technologies developed at the FBRI.

Click here to read more in the Cardinal News.