MSU partners with U-M and Wayne State to create University Research Corridor

Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University created the University Research Corridor to work jointly to transform, strengthen and diversify Michigan’s economy. The effort includes work to transition to the bioeconomy.

The three universities are magnets for investment and jobs, bringing more than $1.3 billion in federal research grants to Michigan each year. By marshalling their resources, the three university presidents are reaching out to businesses, policy-makers, innovators, investors and the citizens to speed up technology transfer, make resources more accessible and help attract new jobs to the state.

Over the past five years, the universities -- which together bring 95 percent of the federal academic research dollars that come to Michigan -- have announced an average of one invention every day. Collectively, these discoveries have led to more than 500 license agreements for new technologies and systems.

The corridor partners collaborate on many projects, with one another and with industry, on issues ranging from technology transfer and commercialization to entrepreneurship and urban policy. Michigan's resulting "brain gain" is a prime example of research as a magnet for economic development.

The goal of the URC is to enhance state and national competitiveness in an era of globalization, and to communicate the role and activities of the universities to improve their ability to engage in meaningful partnerships.

"Our research universities are creators of knowledge and generate the innovations, new technologies and new businesses that not only provide jobs but also improve life for all citizens of Michigan," said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon.

The University Research Corridor builds on the foundation of the 1999 Life Sciences Corridor initiative, in which the three universities collaborated to help develop a new industry from the ground up.