ISU officials discussed Tuesday night a plan intended to boost Iowa’s economy.

The Battelle Report’s “Bioscience Pathway for Development” concluded that regent universities and private companies need increased funding for bioscience research and development.

The Battelle Report was completed after Gov. Tom Vilsack and the Iowa Department of Economic Development commissioned Battelle, a Columbus, Ohio-based science and technology company, to determine how helpful economic development in the biosciences area would be to the state.

James Bloedel, vice provost for research administration, led the forum presentation, focusing on how Iowa’s economic future is linked to success in the biosciences.

Bloedel said an immediate priority of the Battelle plan is to increase funding to Iowa State, one of Iowa’s regent universities.

“I view it as an opportunity for the university,” Bloedel said. “There is a way to contribute in a meaningful way to our state, to its economic growth. We can bring in at least $10 million.”

Some forum attendees were skeptical about the validity of the report and said that the need for economic growth in bioscience was found partially because the objective was to find a need.

“They knew what the answer was, and they got it,” said Stanley Johnson, vice provost of ISU Extension. “When the governor made the contract with Battelle, [he] knew the answer was going to be some advancements in bioscience.”

Questions about whether bioscience development was worth spending a lot of state money on also arose during the forum.

“The first five years of the program will cost somewhere around $145 million dollars,” Bloedel said. “The second five years will cost somewhat in excess of that.”

The grand total price for the 10-year plan is more than $301 million, which will come both from the state and from other sources.

Bloedel said the price will be worth the outcome because the plan should result in more than 130 new Iowa bioscience business startups by 2014, with around 16,050 more jobs.

“I’m a supporter of the report,” said Johnson, “but at the same time we have to be understanding of where it came from.”

“It comes from a political process.”

Bloedel said the plan did have a political aspect.

“The priority of the governor and IDED was to get the report out quickly enough so it might have an impact on elections this fall,” he said.