SILICON VALLEY'S SRI TO ESTABLISH MAJOR RESEARCH CENTER IN ROCKINGHAM

From: Media Relations

SRI's Dr. Curtis Carlson speaks at the news conference in JMU's Festival.
December 14, 2006

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced today in Richmond that SRI International, one of the world's leading independent research and technology development organizations based in California's Silicon Valley, has selected the Shenandoah Valley's Rockingham County as the site for its new Center for Advanced Drug Research, or CADRE.

The new center, to be located in the Rockingham Center for Research and Technology north of Harrisonburg on U.S. Route 11, will partner with James Madison University and other Virginia institutions in state-of-the-art pharmaceutical research. SRI plans to add other high-technology programs in such areas as biothreats and homeland security, engineering, nanotechnology, energy, information technology and education at the Rockingham County site.

The project when completed will create more than 100 new jobs with an average annual compensation of $85,000.

At 4:30 p.m. today, Rockingham County and SRI officials will hold a joint news conference about the new center in JMU's Festival Conference and Student Center. The news conference, "Celebrating a Partnership in Research," may be viewed on the JMU Web at http://media.jmu.edu/.

Michael A. Breeden, chairman of the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors, and Dr. Curtis R. Carlson, SRI's president and chief executive officer, will speak. Officials of the City of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County as well as members of the local legislative delegation and representatives of area economic development organizations also will be in attendance.

For more details on the new initiative, read the news release from the Office of the Governor, "Governor Kaine Announces Major Research Institute for Virginia," at http://www.governor.virginia.gov/, or at SRI's Web site at http://www.sri.com/news/releases/121406.html.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the Shenandoah Valley Partnership, Rockingham County, City of Harrisonburg and JMU to prepare the state's proposal to secure the project for Virginia. The commonwealth appropriated $3 million in fiscal year 2006 to initiate the project, and Gov. Kaine will submit a funding request to the General Assembly for FY2008 for $12 million of a $19 million commitment to SRI.

SRI International, founded in California as the Stanford Research Institute in 1946, is a nonprofit research institute that performs client-sponsored research and development for government agencies, commercial businesses and private foundations. In addition to conducting contract R&D, SRI licenses its technologies, forms strategic partnerships and creates spinoff companies.

In November, SRI was selected as one of Silicon Valley's "Best Places to Work" by "San Jose Magazine," under such criteria as employee benefits, work environment and corporate culture. SRI was commended for offering up to $100 per month in tax-free transit assistance, onsite massage, a staff activities center, emergency back-up childcare, employee art exhibitions, and local and community involvement.

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