The West Virginia High-Technology Consortium Foundation and the Institute for Scientific Research are merging.

Charlie Reese of the Marion Regional Development Corporation sees the combined company as one with more leverage than before, especially with major government contracts.

"Hopefully, this will make them even stronger and be able to recruit more companies and contracts into this area,” said Reese.

Most of North Central West Virginia's high-tech companies are involved in Government contracts. Many of them fall under the umbrella of the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation.

"There's expertise in the consortium that ISR didn't have. There's expertise in ISR the consortium didn't have,” said Fairmont Mayor Nick Fantasia.

The consortium deals with helping small technology companies get up and running. ISR mainly deals with science and engineering research.

It's not clear yet what kind of impact the merger will have on jobs. Neither company has commented on that. Mayor Fantasia doesn't feel it will be a major affect on employment in Marion County.