Harrisburg Regional Chamber leads largest regional delegation at national Business for Federal Research Funding fly-in.
The Harrisburg Region brought a strong voice to Capitol Hill this week, as the Harrisburg Regional Chamber led business and higher education partners to Washington, D.C., to make the case that federal research funding is an investment in economic growth, jobs, talent, and innovation as part of the Business for Federal Research Funding (BFRF) Coalition.
We are especially grateful to our members and regional partners from Penn State Harrisburg, Penn State College of Medicine and Harrisburg University of Science and Technology who made the trip to Washington and brought the Harrisburg Region’s research stories directly to policymakers. We also thank the congressional offices that welcomed our delegation and engaged with us on an issue with significant implications for our region’s economy.
That included meetings with U.S. Senator Dave McCormick’s office, U.S. Senator John Fetterman’s office and U.S. Representative Scott Perry, who met personally with members of the delegation.
PICTURED: Staff from Sen. McCormick’s office with the Harrisburg Delegation team (Left to Right: Jessica Falborn, Sr. Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Harrisburg Regional Chamber; Luanne Hutchinson, Executive Director, Government Relations and Strategic Initiatives, Harrisburg University; Erika Swift, Executive Director, Center for Medical Innovation, Penn State College of Medicine; Sherri Kermanshachi, Vice Chancellor for Research and Outreach, Penn State Harrisburg; Todd Camp, Executive Director of Administrative Services/COO, Penn State Harrisburg.)
The Harrisburg Region Showed Up in Force
Our delegation was the largest regional delegation participating in the fly-in, bringing together business and higher education leaders around a straightforward message: federal research funding is not simply an investment in science. It is an investment in jobs, talent, innovation, healthier communities, new companies, and American competitiveness.
The Harrisburg Regional Chamber is grateful to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce for its leadership in organizing and convening the Coalition Fly-In and bringing together business and higher education leaders from across the country. The coalition represents 90 chambers across 41 states and works to communicate the connection between federal research funding, local job creation, innovation, industry growth, and U.S. competitiveness.
And the Harrisburg Region has uniquely powerful stories to tell about what those investments make possible.
Taking the Harrisburg Region’s Story to Congress
The delegation divided into teams for three congressional meetings, sharing examples of the impact federal research investment is already having across the Harrisburg Region.
Rather than leading with the mechanics of grants or technical details of individual research projects, delegation members focused on what those investments make possible at home.
Federal research investment matters to employers and communities because its impact extends far beyond the institution receiving an award. It supports workforce pipelines, hospitals, suppliers, startups, manufacturers, and employers; helps de-risk discoveries that can eventually become commercial products and companies; and builds the talent and innovation capacity on which U.S. competitiveness depends.
The message was simple: federal research funding is economic development.
From Harrisburg Research Labs to the Battlefield
At Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, advanced manufacturing research demonstrates how work happening in downtown Harrisburg can help solve challenges far beyond Central Pennsylvania.
Harrisburg University’s STORMWERX Research Center works with military partners in areas including additive manufacturing, material sciences, reverse engineering, repair, and remanufacturing. The center has research and development agreements with the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy, including work supporting the Marine Corps. Its partnerships are designed to move advanced manufacturing technologies toward practical applications that improve readiness and military capabilities.
In one project, Harrisburg University is helping advance 3D-printing technology and materials while printing and iterating parts selected by U.S. Army DEVCOM representatives. Those parts are then tested for potential military applications, including in Army vehicles.
The potential is practical. Additive manufacturing and reverse engineering can make it possible to recreate needed parts and address supply-chain challenges closer to where equipment is being used. Harrisburg University has demonstrated these capabilities to military partners, including the Naval Supply Systems Command, as part of work intended to improve combat readiness.
It is a powerful example of the connection the delegation emphasized throughout the day: research investment becomes innovation, innovation becomes capability, and capability creates economic and strategic value.
Research That Changes Lives
At Penn State College of Medicine, federal research investment is supporting biomedical discovery with the potential to improve lives in Pennsylvania and around the world.
Delegation members shared examples of federally supported work addressing major health challenges, including diabetes, obesity and addiction, as well as research exploring new uses for existing drugs.
One example comes from Penn State College of Medicine researchers who identified the commonly prescribed antidepressant paroxetine as a potential disease-modifying treatment for osteoarthritis. Researchers found that inhibiting a particular cellular pathway with paroxetine prevented progression of the disease and promoted cartilage health in preclinical research.
Stories like these demonstrate why early-stage research matters. Private investment is essential as discoveries move toward market, but early research can be too uncertain for private capital alone. Federal investment can help create and de-risk discoveries that companies may later develop and scale.
Federal support also contributes to research addressing diabetes and obesity and to Penn State’s work in addiction research– work that can ultimately inform treatments, programs and approaches that reach patients and communities.
The impact does not end with a single discovery. Research creates knowledge that can be built upon, translated, and- in some cases- repurposed to solve problems researchers may not have envisioned when the original work began.
Building the Next Generation of Talent
Research funding also represents an investment in people.
Federal research dollars help train the next generation of researchers, scientists, educators and innovators– people who then carry their expertise into classrooms, laboratories, companies, and communities. At Penn State Harrisburg, National Science Foundation-supported programs provide hands-on research experiences for K–12 STEM teachers and help recruit and prepare future mathematics teachers for high-need school districts. Those investments multiply: the educators trained today take new knowledge and research experiences back into their classrooms, helping prepare the next generation of students for STEM careers.
Penn State Harrisburg — BIORETs: Synthetic and Systems Biology Research Experience for Teachers
Penn State — $1.2M NSF Grant to Recruit and Retain Math Teachers
Students working alongside researchers gain hands-on experience. Graduate students develop specialized expertise. Researchers become teachers and mentors who train the people coming behind them. Those graduates then enter the workforce, launch careers, educate future students, and bring new knowledge to employers.
That workforce connection matters to the Harrisburg Region.
Our higher education institutions are economic anchors that attract students and researchers, develop talent, and create opportunities for graduates to build careers here. Research funding strengthens that pipeline while giving students opportunities to work on real-world problems before they ever enter the workforce.
Building Smarter Communities at Penn State Harrisburg
Penn State Harrisburg’s research also demonstrates how innovation can respond directly to challenges facing Pennsylvania communities.
The college’s Smart Home Research Initiative brings together multiple disciplines to explore how smart technologies can help older adults and people with disabilities live safely and independently. Its research includes monitoring and assistive technologies, smart-home devices, mobility, wearable devices, fall prevention, sustainability, and the policy, cybersecurity and educational issues surrounding implementation.
That work is especially relevant as communities consider how technology can expand access to care and services, including for populations that may face geographic or mobility barriers.
Again, the value reaches beyond a research paper. These investments build expertise, create partnerships, develop talent, and produce ideas that can ultimately improve quality of life while strengthening the region’s innovation ecosystem.
Research Funding Is Also a Main Street Story
Perhaps the simplest message the Harrisburg delegation carried to Washington was that the economic impact of research does not stop at the university gates.
A research award supports researchers, technicians, students, and staff. Those people live somewhere. They buy homes and groceries. They eat at restaurants. They stop for gas. Visiting researchers stay in hotels. Institutions purchase equipment and services. Research attracts partners and companies. Graduates enter the workforce.
The Chamber delegation emphasized this point throughout all Washington meetings this week: the institution receiving the award is only the beginning of the economic chain.
That matters particularly in communities where jobs and new economic activity can have an outsized impact, including Pennsylvania’s rural communities and downtown Harrisburg.
For the Harrisburg Regional Chamber, that makes federal research funding part of a much larger regional economic development story. Investments that bring researchers, students, jobs, and activity into the city reinforce broader efforts to strengthen downtown Harrisburg, support businesses, and build a more vibrant regional economy.
And those effects ripple outward. The economic value of research is felt not only by universities, but by the restaurants, retailers, hotels, gas stations, suppliers, service providers, and other businesses that support the people and institutions conducting the work.
A National Conversation With a Local Business Voice
The fly-in concluded with a coalition roundtable, “Why Robust Federal Research Funding Matters for Employers, the Economy, and Global Competitiveness.”
The discussion brought together business, science, workforce, and economic-development perspectives, including U.S. Representative Jake Auchincloss, Vice Chair of the Congressional BioTech Caucus; Sandy K. Baruah, President and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber; Dr. Stephanie Rodriguez, Director of the STEMM Opportunity Alliance at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); and Dr. Philip Singerman, a Senior Adviser with the Renewing American Innovation Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
We are grateful to the speakers who shared their expertise and perspectives with coalition members and reinforced a theme that had been central to the Harrisburg delegation’s meetings throughout the day: the business community has an important voice in the federal research conversation.
Companies conduct significant research and development of their own, but early-stage and basic research can require years of investment without a predictable commercial return. Federal investment can support that earlier discovery process, while universities, entrepreneurs, and private companies help translate promising discoveries into products, businesses, and economic growth.
The roundtable also connected research investment to the country’s ability to develop and retain highly skilled talent, strengthen advanced manufacturing capabilities, and remain globally competitive.
At the same time, the conversation recognized that supporting federal research investment and demanding accountability are not mutually exclusive.
Accountability and innovation can coexist. Responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars matters. So does predictability. Multi-year research requires institutions to hire people, purchase equipment, form partnerships, and make long-term commitments. Abrupt disruptions can jeopardize work already underway and investments already made.
Making the Business Case for Research
For the Harrisburg Regional Chamber, participating in the Business for Federal Research Funding Coalition is ultimately about bringing an economic development and business community perspective to a conversation that can too easily be viewed as simply a university funding issue.
It is much bigger than that.
Our region’s research institutions bring the scientific and technical expertise. The Chamber brings the business case.
Together, we can connect a federal research investment to the researcher it employs, the student it trains, the teacher it develops, the discovery it makes, the company that commercializes an idea, the manufacturer or supplier supporting the work, the patient whose life may improve, and the downtown business that benefits when more people are working and spending dollars in the community.
That is the story our delegation carried to Washington. Federal research funding is economic development. The discoveries may begin in a laboratory, but their impact reaches far beyond it.
ABOUT HARRISBURG REGIONAL CHAMBER & CREDC
For 140 years, the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC has served as the region’s catalyst for economic prosperity. The organization combines business, community, and economic development services to enhance the region’s vitality and livability. The Chamber is a five-star accredited chamber through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—a distinction held by fewer than 1 percent of chambers nationwide. CREDC is the region’s toolbox for economic development. It is the only Certified Economic Development Organization (CEDO) approved by the Commonwealth’s Department of Community and Economic Development to perform economic development activities regionally using Pennsylvania’s funding programs across Cumberland, Dauphin, and Perry counties.
