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County committee hears Institute for Health Computing's plan for sustainability, approves continued $5 million support
Summary
The Montgomery County Economic Development Committee accepted the County Executive's recommendation to continue a $5 million annual appropriation to the University of Maryland's Institute for Health Computing and pressed institute leaders on their plan to replace county support through grants, commercialization and partnerships.
The Montgomery County Economic Development Committee on Wednesday accepted the County Executive's recommendation to continue a $5 million annual appropriation to the Institute for Health Computing (IHC), while asking IHC leaders for more detail on how the institute will achieve fiscal sustainability once the current MOU funding ends in FY29.
Adam Porter, co-executive director of the IHC, told the committee the institute —supports over a 135 personnel— and that 39 staff live and pay taxes in Montgomery County, and described the center's work with federal agencies such as NIH and the FDA to advance AI-enabled medical imaging, precision medicine and computational drug discovery.
The committee's discussion focused on sustainability. Brad Marin, IHC co-executive director, outlined a four‑part strategy that emphasizes (1) securing extramural federal and foundation funding, (2) commercializing homegrown innovations, (3) expanding public‑private partnerships and (4) developing education and workforce programs. Marin said IHC submitted many grant applications and reported a recent award of $12,500,000 as part of its funding profile.
Council members pressed IHC on how collaborations would translate into revenue and who would own resulting intellectual property. IHC representatives said county funds would not be paid to federal agencies and described plans to develop compensated lines of business that would charge companies for testing and evaluation services. On IP, IHC said work performed by institute personnel typically stays with the institute and that joint projects include prearranged terms for shared ownership when appropriate.
Council President Natalie Fani Gonzalez said the county values the partnership and asked staff and IHC to return with updates about sustainability and federal funding outlooks. After discussion, the committee accepted the account executive's recommendation to continue the appropriation for the current cycle; no formal roll‑call vote or tally was recorded in the committee transcript.
The committee scheduled no further changes to the IHC appropriation at this meeting; council members indicated they expect more detailed briefings in the fall as part of longer-term budget planning.
