Submitted by Jeff Quibell
The Blue Springs Examiner
January 20, 2010

The Missouri Innovation Park, announced just over one year ago, has received significant media attention.  Excitement surrounding the development projects and the impact that they will have on our city abounds.  However, the fine details are still forthcoming.
 
Innovation involves the deliberate application of information, imagination and initiative to generate new ideas. The Missouri Innovation Park will be a science and technology park for the purposes of research and development, new products and services.  The Mizzou Innovation Center, a research facility that will facilitate the collaborative efforts of University of Missouri professors and graduate students in the study and research of human and animal health technologies, will be the anchor tenant of the park.

The remainder of the park proposes to house facilities and businesses that will integrate well with the research and development of the University, and will likely produce products for commercial sale, resulting from scientific and technological discoveries of the Park.  The potential for several thousand high-paying jobs coming to Blue Springs and the surrounding region is exciting, and is only one component of the many benefits to our community that will come because of the Park. 

The Mizzou Innovation Center should begin the process of development and construction in the coming months. This exciting project will be a visible indication that the Missouri Innovation Park is not simply a vision, but a reality.  The commitment our city leaders have made to the Park, to the achievement of this goal which will raise the economic demographic of our community, will be validated. 

As we embark on this extraordinary journey, no one knows exactly what the final result will be, or how the finished product will appear.  The details of the Park continue to evolve, which is normal and appropriate for projects of this magnitude and scope. The result, the Missouri Innovation Park, will lead to discoveries we cannot even imagine today.  With innovation and discovery, the possibilities are limitless. 

Source:  The Blue Springs Examiner