SCRA reports nearly a billion dollar impact on South Carolina economy in 2020
The South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) reported that its impact on the State of South Carolina was nearly one billion dollars in 2020.
According to an announcement last week, SCRA annually calculates its economic variables such as jobs supported, salaries, grant funding, and investments made, then works with the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business to analyze the data and determine the overall economic impact to the state’s economy. The results of the study are included in SCRA’s recently published 2020 Annual Report: A Year Like No Other, A Response Like No Other.
The 2020 impact of $952.4 million is a 35 percent increase over 2019. Highlights include: (1) 5,251 South Carolina-based jobs supported by SCRA programs and operations; (2) an average salary of $74,196 for companies in SCRA’s SC Launch entrepreneurial program which is 59 percent higher than the state’s average of $47,182; (3) $2.4 million in grants to advance research capabilities, commercialize technology, expand product offerings, and fund the costs for businesses to relocate to SC; and (4) almost $1.5 billion in follow-on funding to SC Launch companies since the inception of the program in 2006, with over $329 million received in 2020 alone.
“We mobilized our board and staff soon after the pandemic started last year,” said Bob Quinn, SCRA Executive Director. “It was this rapid action that allowed us to take a two-fold approach to help our companies produce solutions to fight the pandemic and also to shore up some of our companies that were negatively impacted by the economic downturn. As our title states, it truly was a year like no other, as well as a response like no other.”
SCRA fulfills its mission of fueling South Carolina’s innovation economy through its four programs – SC Academic Innovations, SC Facilities, SC Industry Solutions, and SC Launch.
