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URC UPDATE LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENTS

April 16, 2007

Dear Friend,

We write to bring you up to date on the University Research Corridor, a new alliance of the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University. We created the alliance to promote and leverage our collective assets and to encourage collaboration among our universities and the state. Our goal: Accelerate statewide economic development.

We believe strongly that robust investment in all 15 of Michigan’s public universities is key to the state’s future economic stability. The state’s universities and community colleges are the critical path to an educated, skilled and flexible workforce, one prepared to respond to the economic challenges ahead. However, the state’s research-intensive universities, now collaborating as the University Research Corridor, have a unique and important role in fostering the innovation that will fuel new industries.

The University Research Corridor (URC) describes the significant concentration of university-based research and development within a geographic area, much like North Carolina’s Research Triangle. In fact, the URC generated more external research dollars last year than the universities that make up North Carolina’s successful alliance.

Through the URC, we can:

  • Promote the state’s R&D assets to businesses and investors
  • Encourage greater collaboration among and beyond our campuses so the state realizes even more impact from its research universities
  • Provide services to the state to support new business recruitment and development

The URC offers powerful collective assets. Our institutions conduct the vast majority of university-based research in the state. Together we account for 95 percent of the federal and other research dollars brought to Michigan by public universities—over a billion dollars. That R&D translates into a large and growing base of university-based tech transfer and new business development. In the past five years, the URC received 632 patents and accounted for 79 start-up companies—effectively creating at least one new business every month. Our researchers and graduate students come from all over the world to join our academic communities, and often settle in Michigan to continue their work or start new ventures.

In addition, the URC universities are key drivers for some of the state’s largest business sectors including Michigan’s $61 billion agricultural industry. And, of course, our medical education and hospitals are one of the state’s primary growth sectors. A recent report from the Association of American Medical schools determined that Michigan’s medical schools had a combined economic impact of about $18.7 billion in 2005.

Last Sunday’s (4/8/2007) Detroit Free Press reported on the potential for even greater research collaboration and greater business development as the new University Research Corridor alliance develops over time. It is still a fledgling effort, but we believe that by working together (along with business and government leaders) we can increase awareness of our collective assets, attract and retain talent, increase tech transfer activities, mount collaborative research projects and encourage new business development throughout Michigan.

We have established a robust URC web site as an online resource. Businesses, investors, faculty and state leaders can use the site as a portal to university-based research information, such as a listing of all the URC research centers with links and contact information. We want to get the word out to potential businesses about the richness of the resources available to them—from the skilled workforce to the research facilities to the technology transfer pipeline. Few states have so much to offer within a short drive.

But the web site is just the beginning. Through the URC, we will explore many additional activities in the upcoming months, to serve the state’s economic development needs. Here are a few examples:

  • One key element for our state’s economic recovery is collaboration. We will encourage an even higher level of collaboration among our researchers and our operations, so the state realizes the greatest possible return on its investment in research universities. We hope to attract additional funding—from business, federal and foundation sources—to fuel URC partnerships with the potential for tremendous statewide impact.
  • We aim to increase awareness of our university-based R&D inside and outside Michigan’s borders, to enhance the state’s attractiveness to researchers and new businesses. Knowledge-based economies thrive on ready access to new ideas and creativity found among university faculty and students. Proximity to centers of research is a common characteristic of the nation’s most successful high-tech centers, and testimony to the value of these intellectual resources.
  • We plan to provide a “rapid response service”for state and business leaders working to attract new business. The URC can mobilize quickly to prepare leaders with detailed information about university assets, or provide expert advice, when companies worldwide consider Michigan as a potential new home. And as our recent experience with Pfizer’s announcement demonstrates, we can be partners when the state has to address business challenges as well, providing leadership to retain talent and develop new ideas.
  • And finally, we believe taxpayers and legislators should hold us accountable for our unique operations and find ways to measure the output and productivity that is quite specific to University Research Corridor activities. This year, we will create the first URC annual report to state constituents. The report will establish criteria by which to measure and benchmark our universities’ contributions, and will present a dynamic picture of Michigan’s university-based R&D as our state continues its drive for national and international competitiveness.

It is an ambitious agenda, and one that will grow substantially over the next several years. Now is the time for our state and our universities to create a new path to economic recovery. We invite your comments and your ideas as we work to make the unlimited potential of the URC a reality.

Sincerely,

Lou Anna K. Simon
Michigan State University

Mary Sue Coleman
University of Michigan

Irvin D. Reid
Wayne State University

URC update letter from the presidents (52 KB PDF file)

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