The Civic Innovation Lab just announced it’s two most recent awards:

MedCity News Service, founded by former Plain Dealer reporters, Chris Seper and Mary Vanac, received $30,000 to create a medical industry news service and web site which will cover Northeast Ohio’s growing medical community. The service will provide comprehensive industry-wide coverage of innovation and influence in medical and health-care communities and will deliver local professional medical news to the communities it covers.

MedCity News is aimed at professional stakeholders in medical and health-care communities including major health-care providers, medical professionals and other news outlets interested in breakthrough coverage involving the business of medicine among others.

Cleveland is the ideal location to start MedCity News because it is home to several world-class medical institutions; features a rapidly growing medical industry and healthcare investment community; and a significant number of healthcare employees, which creates a large pool of potential local readers to complement a national audience.

Jennifer Thomas, the Lab’s director, said these new initiatives are examples of how the Lab supports entrepreneurs building new industries.

“Chris and Mary are creating a new approach to journalism using their expertise and passion. They are a talented team and committed to this product. The Lab is energized by their willingness to push innovation in an industry that is experiencing rapid change.”

Thomas Mulready, the founder of CoolCleveland, and Earl Pike, CEO of the AIDS Task Force of Greater Cleveland, will mentor MedCity News for the Lab.

BeeDance, founded by Mike Dungan, received $30,000 to create a virtual platform that identifies, locates, and connects useful waste materials to community members who view the items as essential to their program or process.

BeeDance promotes the practice of upcycling, a low impact form of recycling that uses the embodied energy already in place from the fabrication of an item to find a new or similar purpose.  Mike brings previous success to this project as the co-creator of ZeroLandfill, a Cleveland based volunteer group that has successfully upcycled and diverted 75 tons of architectural and construction samples from the landfill.

The BeeDance name is derived from a unique behavior exhibited by the honeybee that is mimicked in the design of this new online service.  Bees communicate food resource locations to the rest of the colony by a sophisticated dance.  The BeeDance platform will emulate this characteristic by locating and communicating new sources of materials to various audiences using current mapping and social media technologies.

“Mike has assembled an impressive team to tackle this creative solution to managing and reclassifying waste. His understanding of this budding industry and commitment to innovate is impressive,” says Lab director Jennifer Thomas.

Colleen Gilson, Executive Director of Cleveland Neighborhood Development Corporation, and Andres Gonzalez, Director of Diversity and Community Outreach for the Cleveland Clinic will mentor BeeDance for the Lab.