URC Symposium Series

The University Research Corridor Symposia are a series of sponsored events that bring together researchers from the three URC universities as well as professionals from government, private industry, and other academia and research institutions. The objective the URC Symposium Series is to develop multidisciplinary research collaborations across the three institutions as well as with external partners.

The URC does not currently have an open RFP for accepting new symposia proposals. It is hoped that a RFP will be released in FY2011.

The URC Symposium Series funding is awarded through a competitive process. The 2010 program included 36 conference proposals and three awards were announced in June of 2010:

• The 2nd Michigan Collaborative Research Symposium on Cerebral Palsy: Developing Collaborative Research with the CP Community. Held in October 2010, this event brought together almost 100 researchers focused on Cerebral Palsy.
  
  http://researchcorridor.com/features/cerebralpalsy0002.aspx
  URC Co-Chairs: Edward Hurvitz (U-M), Nigel Paneth (MSU), Sujatha Kannan (WSU).
  

• Creating, Enhancing, and Sustaining Livable Communities. This April 2011 event focused on collaborations and discussions to foster sustainable and livable communities for Michigan residents and hence support a more vibrant Michigan economy. The four event themes were Physical and Environmental Issues; Cultural and Social Issues; Financial Issues; and Governance and Service Provision.
  
  http://researchcorridor.com/inthenews/sustainablecommunities040411.aspx
  URC Co-Chairs: Laura Reese (MSU) and Robin Boyle (WSU).

• A three-university partnership to develop “Innovation in Water Science and Technology, Education and Entrepreneurship – Creating Michigan’s WaterHub through Academic-Government-Private Partnerships.” This event is scheduled for September 29-30, 2011.
  
  http://urcmich.org/events/
  
  URC Co-Chairs: Joan Rose (MSU); Carol Miller (WSU); Nancy Love (U-M).

Two additional URC Symposia have been conducted in the 2010-2011 time period:

• The first URC symposium, the Environmental Health Sciences Conference was held in January 2010 at Wayne State University. The conference objective was to develop inter-institutional, multidisciplinary research collaborations in environmental health science problems important to Michigan and the United States.
  
  http://urcmich.org/events/environmentalhealth.php
  
  This symposium was so successful in creating collaborations that the URC universities jointly created a $900,000 research fund to competitively award and further support project teams.
  
  http://research.wayne.edu/funding/internal-funding/ehs_urc_funding_opportunity_2010_2011.pdf
  
  http://urcmich.org/news/110503environmental.php

• In April 2011, business and labor leaders, policymakers, innovators, and research scholars from the U.S. convened in Detroit. The conference objective was to advance knowledge, systems, and solutions that can transform the future of transportation and revitalize economies and communities in Michigan and beyond. The program combined high level plenary sessions with focused, collaborative working sessions, an open poster session, many opportunities for shared work, and local social and cultural visits in Detroit.
  
  http://www.ttrcc.org/Summit/About.aspx