Goals

The ERPC offers this Value Proposition: In collaboration with Biopharma Crescent partners, the ERPC will develop and enhance opportunities for students and incumbent workers to learn in place so they may enter into, and advance within, high–skill, high–pay pharmaceutical industry careers while allowing them to stay in, and contribute to, their home communities –especially those in North Carolina’s rural counties. The project will deliver outcomes to bridge the clearly articulated gaps in both workforce supply (new AAS and BS graduates) and skillset (up–skilling and new–skilling for incumbent workers). Our “grow local” approach recognizes the constraints faced by place–bound students and incumbent workers, necessitating meaningful collaboration with community college and industry partners in the Biopharma Crescent counties. Through this collaboration, we will deliver education, training and professional development programs to students and incumbent employees “in place” –in their home counties, learning from home, work, or at the local community college –via investments in remote learning technology that will be digitally–integrated with state–of–the–art pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment in ECU’s new Life Sciences and Biotechnology Building. Indeed, our own digital transformation in this project will enable us to deliver programs and “hands–on” experiential learning to geographically distributed students (both community college and ECU) and industry incumbent workers.

The action plan to achieve these goals includes:

  1. Create, staff, and host the Pharma Pathways Program (PPP):The PPP will implement a regionally coordinated collaboration of two ECU academic colleges (Engineering & Technology, Arts & Sciences), five BioPharma Crescent community colleges (CCs), and regional industry partners to achieve a common goal: build and develop guided pathways for students and incumbent workers to identify, enter into, and advance through in–place academic and professional development programs in key technical areasthat meet the workforce demands of the pharma industry today and in the future.
  2. Expand Academic and Experiential Learning Capacity at ECU: The ERPC will add faculty and staff expertise and invest in new laboratory and IT equipment to (i) increase capacity for 3x higher student enrollment in key BS degree programs and (ii) develop new, innovative academic program content and capabilities emphasizing future industry skillset requirements for continuous manufacturing processes with single–use components, manufacturing of cell/gene therapeutics, and implementation of Pharma 4.0 technology and cybersecurity.
  3. Expand Industry Partner Services:The ERPC will expand PSN@ECU’s portfolio to include pharma manufacturing short courses, industry certifications, and custom–designed programs. Our new Manufacturing Capabilities and Cybersecurity Complex, located in the new $90M Life Sciences & Biotechnology Building, will provide an environment where industry partners can collaborate with students and faculty on projects, test new ideas, and train incumbent employees.