This grant provides funding to Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute (CCC&TI) to renovate and upfit lab space on campus to support Project Vanderbilt. Project Vanderbilt is BioNutra, an Indian biotechnology manufacturing company. It plans to open a facility in the United States at which it will manufacture nutraceuticals, probiotics, medicinal foods, and dietary supplements. It considered Caldwell County, Maryland and Texas for the project. The company will make a capital investment of nearly $9.5 million and create 167 new jobs over five years (200 over six) with an average annual wage of $45,725 compared to the county average of $38,957. Golden LEAF funds will be used for improvements at CCC&TI to provide training to Project Vanderbilt and to other pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in the region. The college has identified 365 projected new jobs in the pharmaceutical industry in the Caldwell County over the next six years, of which 200 would be at BioNutra.
