We've heard a lot of talk about so-called "clusters," the buzzword used by economic developers to talk about geographic concentrations of interrelated businesses. In many cases, these clusters will wither on the vine, falling short of the critical mass needed to keep them going.

Bioscience, a catch-all term for companies that use science and technology related to living organisms, might be a different story for the mid-valley, and here are some of the reasons why:

• We already have a number of well-

established bioscience companies in the mid-valley on both sides of the river. A partial list includes companies such as Synthetech, Oregon Freeze Dry, Gene Tools, Tec Labs, AVI BioPharma and Siga Technologies.

• Oregon State University, Linn-Benton Community College and other colleges and universities in the area offer a pool of graduates in science, engineering and business.

• Those same colleges and universities are tackling research that could become the starting point for other successful companies in the mid-valley.

• To some extent, many of the region's other major employers (Hewlett-Packard and Wah Chang are two good examples) create a reservoir of engineering and manufacturing expertise on which bioscience firms can rely.

So we have a promising start in the mid-valley in developing our bioscience cluster, but plenty of hurdles remain. A study released this month identified some of the key ones:

• The industry needs a deeper pool of workers, especially in senior technical and management positions.

• Startup companies need greater access to in-state sources of early-stage financing.

• Those same fledgling companies need office space, complete with wet-lab and clean-room facilities, and those are at a

premium in the mid-valley.

• Ties between the industry and the state's research institutions need to be strengthened.

These issues will require a considerable amount of work, but they're not insurmountable. Some work already is under way, a lot of it thanks to the Willamette Valley Bioscience Industry Consortium, one of three regional chapters of the Oregon Bioscience Association.

One of the keys to success will be solving that work-force issue, and here's an area where our educational institutions really can shine. Business leaders talk about the difficulty of recruiting new talent to the mid-

valley, especially when you consider that we're competing against the bright lights of metro areas like Portland. At least one high-tech business in the mid-valley has had to readjust its recruiting strategy so that it's targeting engineers with young families who can appreciate the value of raising a family here.

But if we're able to grow our own talent here, through our high schools, our community colleges and other institutions, we'll get a leg up: These are people who don't need to be sold on the benefits of living here. This is, by the way, some of the thinking behind Good Samaritan's plans to build a multidisciplinary medical school campus in Lebanon.

We talk a lot about bringing good-paying jobs to the mid-valley. A healthy and growing bioscience cluster would do that. The efforts to build on the promising foundation that we already have in place deserve our support.