About HSSA

The Health Sciences and Services Authority (HSSA) of Spokane County was created by the Washington State Legislature in 2007 (RCW 35.104) to promote bioscience-based economic development and to advance new therapies and procedures to combat disease and to promote public health. This was, in part, a response to the Technology Alliance’s Bio 21 Report to develop an economic strategy with health and science at its core.

Under the legislation, HSSA is empowered to:

• Leverage public monies with amounts received from other public and private resources
• Solicit and receive gifts, grants, and bequests
• Hold funds received by the Authority in trust, and
• Make grants to entities pursuant to contract to promote bioscience-based economic development, advance new therapies and procedures to combat disease, and promote public health.

Spokane County is a known center for health care delivery, and the region is home to a significant network of rural and urban hospitals, including two of the top three in the state; enjoys excellent higher education facilities, including a medical sciences research university, a regional university and three private colleges, in addition to an outstanding community college system with strong education in applied health care, and excellent high-speed, high volume digital infrastructure.

Once established by the state, Spokane County authorized the HSSA within its boundaries where it collects a small fraction of a percent of county-wide sales tax revenue to fund research and operate.