URC2010 Goals

URC sets goals for 2010

Michigan’s University Research Corridor has a clear vision: Help create the 21st century Michigan. What should the new Michigan look like and how can the URC become a major force in creating our state’s new, dynamic economy?

Read our latest annual report. (526 KB, 20 pages, PDF)

By Joe Serwach
News Service

LANSING – Michigan’s University Research Corridor has five major goals, starting with boosting collaboration at all levels — faculty, staff and students — among University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University.

Other top priorities, mapped out by Executive Director Jeff Mason and the three URC presidents as they marked the opening of the new URC headquarters in Lansing on Friday, include:

• Increasing awareness of the URC and its assets, within and beyond Michigan.
• Providing support to the state in new business recruitment and development.
• Accelerating economic development statewide by taking advantage of opportunities between the URC and other partners, including other public and private universities and regional economic development organizations.
• Assisting local communities in revitalizing metropolitan areas.

Releasing a report detailing accomplishments over the past year, Mason detailed the growth of the life sciences industry and its connection to university research, and listed major employers who have come to the state attracted by the talent of the URC’s faculty, students and graduates. They include General Electric, IBM, Google and Toyota.

Asked by reporters what type of help they expected from state government — which has cut support for higher education throughout the past decade — they stressed that the URC was designed to leverage the value of what the state has invested over the past 150 years to help the state when it needs help the most.

“I firmly believe that we will all rise, we will all challenge each other to be better as we are collaborating to help the state,” said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman. “We clearly understand that our future is deeply connected with the state’s future. We believe that we can be a positive force for change and we want to do that.”

Coleman and her URC counterparts described a vision of researchers from all three universities working together at U-M’s new North Campus Research Complex, Wayne State’s TechTown and MSU facilities, each supporting the other as partners rather than rivals.

“Their success is our success,’’ said MSU President Lou Anna Simon. “It’s not, ‘If they succeed, then we don’t.’’’

The URC headquarters is in Lansing rather than on one of the university’s campuses, Mason said, because each of the universities serves the entire state, and the city offers a central location close to other statewide organizations easily accessible to many parts of the state.

Wayne State President Jay Noren, who had spent much of his career outside Michigan before assuming the WSU presidency in 2008, said the level of cooperation and the complementary abilities of the three universities, each research universities but with different missions and strengths, were especially unique, allowing each to take the lead in different areas with support from the other two partners.

Noren described how WSU and U-M backed and aided MSU’s successful efforts to beat Illinois in a national competition to house a $550 million Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. Simon noted a third of MSU students are from southeastern Michigan and she firmly expected many would set up business at WSU’s TechTown, which tripled the number of tenants last year.

“We have one of the nation’s very top cover-all-the-bases institutions in Michigan, and Michigan State is the top land grant university or one of the top,’’ Noren said. “Wayne State is clearly one of the leading urban research universities. When you combine those things together, we really cover all the bases like none of those other consortia.”

Photos by Greg Kohuth, MSU University Relations

Media coverage

WITH VIDEO: Mary Sue Coleman 'very optimistic' about Michigan's economic future
Coleman, speaking Friday to the media at an event organized to highlight U-M's University Research Corridor coalition with Michigan State University and Wayne State University, said the state still faces significant challenges. But she said she's "very optimistic" about the future.
(AnnArbor.com, February 8, 2010)
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The State News: Universities aim to reshape state economy
As MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon addressed a gathering of about 20 people Friday, her message was clear: MSU has a hand in revitalizing Michigan.
Joined by University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman and Wayne State University President Jay Noren, Simon helped map out the research goals of Michigan’s three largest public universities for the coming year. The universities constitute a research consortium launched three years ago called the University Research Corridor, or URC. The URC’s overarching goal is to combine each school’s resources to help reshape Michigan’s devastated economy.
In addition to discussing the universities’ goals, the three chief executive officers unveiled the URC’s new headquarters at 500 E. Michigan Ave., in Lansing.
(The State News, February 7, 2010)
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The Detroit News: Life sciences boost cited Michigan’s 3 largest universities spend $800M as research group opens office in Lansing
The state’s three largest universities are spending more than $800 million dollars on life sciences research that is creating jobs in Michigan, the director of the University Research Corridor said Friday.... More of that collaboration and economic revitalization is on the horizon, the presidents of University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University pledged as the alliance opened a Lansing headquarters and outlined goals on Friday...Other areas for URC to collaborate on include health, information technology, alternative energy, sustainability and urban revitalization
(The Detroit News, February 6, 2010)
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WILS interview with URC Executive Director Jeff Mason
(WILS, February 5, 2010)
click here to hear the podcast

Great Lakes Innovation and Technology Report: MSU, UM, Wayne State Presidents Open URC Office In Lansing
The presidents of Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University gathered Friday to open the new office of their University Research Corridor in downtown Lansing.
(WWJ, February 5, 2010)
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GLIT Video (four parts)

University Research Corridor opens Lansing headquarters
Coleman said collaborations between the three universities in the state will ultimately help Michigan’s economy and future, adding that the partnerships extend throughout all levels of the universities. “That’s deeply satisfying because I firmly believe that we will all rise, we will all challenge each other to be better as we are collaborating to help the state,” Coleman said. “We clearly understand that our future is deeply connected with the state’s future. We believe that we can be a positive force for change and we want to do that.”
(The Michigan Daily, February 5, 2010)
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University presidents debut research corridor building
The presidents of Michigan’s three largest universities mapped out their research goals for the coming year Friday at the new University Research Corridor, or URC, headquarters in Lansing...The focus areas are collaboration in research, increasing URC’s profile, supporting business development and recruitment, partnering with Michigan’s other universities and revitalizing Michigan’s industries. “We believe that together we can help transform Michigan’s economy,” Simon said. “We want to be a positive force for reinventing our state.”
(The State News, February 5, 2010)
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3 university presidents to meet today
(Detroit Free Press, February 5, 2010)
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