Our view:
Public-private venture could do for Green Bay what biotech has done for Madison

A proposed federal spending bill earmarks $500,000 in grant funding to help the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay establish a research facility for new paper-related technologies. The idea is promoted by U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay.

The House passed the spending bill this month, and the Senate is expected to take it up in January.

Now the state's papermakers have to buy in to the idea for the plan to work. The success of a technology-transfer facility depends on cooperation by the paper industry.

The Wisconsin Paper Council supports the research-facility idea in general.

"Research and development, new technology and new products. That's what's going to really help the paper industry," said Patrick Schillinger, president of the Neenah-based council.

Some overseas factories may be able to manufacture products more cheaply.

"But if we can come up with newer and better uses for paper, we're ahead," he said.

Schillinger said he hoped a model would be devised for the technology-transfer facility to allow Wisconsin companies to have a competitive edge in the industry. The facility's first year would be a pilot project.

There's no time to lose.

The paper industry is vital to the state economy and communities such as Green Bay. Paper and allied industries employ 50,000 people in the state, and more than 8,000 in Brown County. But the paper industry has lost 9,000 jobs statewide in the past three years.

Wisconsin can't afford to lose these high-paying jobs. Paper-industry wages averaged about $49,000 a year in Wisconsin, compared with a $30,000 average for the state's workers.

"The thinking is that traditional paper is not going to be an area of economic growth," UW-Green Bay Chancellor Bruce Shepard said in a story last week. "Ownership is moving abroad. We're not seeing capital investment in keeping traditional paper here. But we've seen an explosion in manufacturing in areas like high-tech paper and non-woven paper products. That looks to be the future growth in the paper industry."

Key players would include industries, UW-Green Bay, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, UW-Stevens Point and its paper-technology program, the Energy Center of Wisconsin, the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory and the WiSys Technology Foundation Inc., which supports research and educational programs at various UW campuses.

The center could help paper companies not only improve but also form start-up companies dedicated to commercializing the research, much like cluster industries involved with biotechnology research have sprung up around UW-Madison.

Demand is expected to climb for high-tech paper and non-woven products, which are used in medical, commercial and industrial fields.