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JOHN DINGELL, CHAIRMAN OF THE U.S. HOUSE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE ON MSU PROPOSAL

“The National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory is not only an important asset to MSU, but it is also a critical piece of the University Research Corridor,” Dingell said. He added that Michigan’s lawmakers and the Leadership Advisory Committee “are very much aware of the economic and academic benefit of having such a first-class facility located in our state and together we will work together to outline why MSU should be selected.”
(U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., July 1, 2008)
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LAB COULD ADD JOBS, MILLIONS TO STATE

Michigan could get a $1-billion bump to its economy over the next 10 years if a new U.S. Department of Energy lab is located at Michigan State University, according to an analysis to be released today. The project would generate about $187 million in taxes over 20 years and would mean a “home run” for the state, said Patrick Anderson, president of the East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group. “We rarely get to even bat in this league,” Anderson’s seven-page memo to MSU notes.Michigan State is hoping to land the contract to build a Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, for the Energy Department. The device would provide intense beams of rare isotopes for researchers.
(Detroit Free Press, July 1, 2008)
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BIG TEN PROVOSTS COMMIT TO WORKING TOGETHER TO MAKE THE MIDWEST’S ECONOMY MORE COMPETITIVE

Twelve provosts from the Big Ten universities and the Midwest region say they will work together on efforts to make the Midwest’s economy more competitive and are calling on governors to join them in this effort. The provosts from the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), a consortium of the Big Ten universities plus the University of Chicago, signed a resolution to that end on Friday, June 27. The resolution came during an economic summit convened by the provosts at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. University leaders, leaders of regional banks, chief executive officers, government leaders, economists, researchers and professors participated in the summit in an effort to find ways to break down barriers that prevent them from effectively working together to build a vital Midwest economy...The region already possesses vitally important assets, including the Great Lakes, significant industrial and corporate entities, world-class research universities, dynamic cities and agricultural resources — all of which are central to a vibrant Midwest economy. The National Science Foundation (NSF) reports that the 12 CIC universities received over $3.1 billion in federal science and engineering support in FY2005. This represents 12.4 percent of the total federal science and engineering dollars — some $25.4 billion — awarded in the U.S. for that year. In addition, CIC universities have been awarded 18 percent of the total NSF science and engineering dollars, and nearly 16 percent of the total U.S. Department of Agriculture dollars.
(University of Minnesota, June 30, 2008)
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PLANS FOR $350 MILLION ETHANOL PLANT IN MICHIGAN ANNOUNCED

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is expected to be the host of a $250 million plant that would turn wood chips into fuel. The facility could have more than 50 jobs when it hits full production in 2012. ... Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University will be allied with the project, which could help further the state’s alternative energy efforts.
(Businessweek, June 27, 2008)
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PAULA GARDNER: IT’S TIME TO PRIORITIZE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY IN MICHIGAN

This state’s leading universities have $1.37 billion in annual research budgets, but less than 6 percent funds alternative energy efforts, according to recent data released by University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman. That figure should grow, she told Michigan Business Review, particularly since oil hit $135 per barrel. That was in late May, and the price still hovers near that new record... It’s time to prioritize alternative energy. It’s also hard to look back and recognize all of the missed opportunities to do so over recent years. Today, we have the clarity. We’re also fortunate that researchers in Michigan saw the potential years ago and led the way with the developments that we’re now putting to use or waiting for commercialization. Over coming months, Michigan Business Review will be telling the story of alternative energy in Michigan. By the time the Innovation event takes place in September, our “Green Book” will define where we stand and where we need to be. It’s a story for our business and political leaders. It’s also a tale that each of us can feel personally.
(Oakland Business Review, June 26, 2008)
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FORD, U-M JOIN ON ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORT INFO NETWORK

The University of Michigan is collaborating with Ford Motor Co. on a program designed to lessen the world’s reliance on motor vehicles in urban environments...The program, which Ford is calling “Urban Mobility Networks,” aims to establish IT networks in major urban centers throughout the globe through which residents could access information about alternative transportation options....The idea is that urban residents could wake up in the morning and check their cell phones to see what transportation methods would be most efficient that day — whether it’s a personal vehicle, taxi, shared bicycle, bus or street car...The collaboration between Ford, U-M’s Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility Research and Transformation (SMART) program and other partners is critical to finding ways to revolutionize urban transportation, said Mary Sue Coleman, U-M president.
(Ann Arbor Business Review, June 19, 2008)
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WSU’s REID IS RAY OF HOPE FOR DETROIT

The school that Irvin Reid headed for nearly 11 years, sitting astride the poorest major city in America, shows how a state-supported institution can make a difference when it joins entrepreneurial principles, economic development savvy and strength in engineering, medicine and technology with some leadership, vision, public dough and private investment. “Much of what you get from me is some fact and a lot of hope,” he told me Thursday, taking a break from a fund-raising trip on the West Coast. “I’m an incurable optimist. There are a lot of new opportunities for Michigan that will be driven by the universities.” Reid, 67, calls it “community engagement.” When he officially leaves the presidency July 31 to his successor, Jay Noren, he’ll assume the university’s Eugene Applebaum chair in community engagement. It’ll be a sort of bully pulpit, smack in the middle of his renovated Park Shelton condo, that Reid could use to push Wayne State deeper into a city that needs it far more than the university needs the city.
(Daniel Howes, The Detroit News, June 13, 2008)
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IN OUR OPINION: TOP SCHOOLS CAN BOOST STATE WITH RESEARCH POWER
WSU, MSU, U-M TEAM UP TO BE A DRIVING FORCE ON ALTERNATIVE ENERGY FOR MICHIGAN

Ever heard of the URC? Didn’t think so, but certainly everyone in Michigan and much of the world beyond has heard of the state’s three largest universities, Michigan State, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. Well, the URC is all three, working together in the University Research Corridor, creating through cooperation one of the big keys to Michigan’s economic future. The universities have always mattered, but their combined effort can matter far more — generating ideas that can become marketable products, drawing millions of research dollars, and attracting talent with the kind of limitless vision that Michigan so desperately needs This is not to minimize the substantial contributions the state’s other universities make to their communities and the economy. All the institutions are turning out the workforce that can change Michigan’s financial and cultural complexion. But the Big Three combined are a powerhouse to be regarded on par with the industrial mainstays that built Michigan.... “We think we are an asset that can be leveraged more,” said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman. That’s not just a plea for more money in an era of declining state support. It’s a call for inclusion in all of Michigan’s economic development strategies. Indeed, with these institutions around, why would the state consider investing in, seeding or offering incentives for any idea without bouncing it off the URC to see what role the schools can play? The university presidents are trying to topple the ivory towers of academia and get their good, smart people on the front lines of Michigan’s economic battle. They have the intellectual resources. They have a commitment that can be a model for the rest of Michigan to eschew turf battles in favor of working together for the common good. To whatever extent the political will can be mustered and the financial resources marshaled, this is an effort that the state as a whole must optimize and encourage.
(Detroit Free Press editorial, June 2, 2008)
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EXTENSION GOES NATIONAL — AND ONLINE

Since they were established in the mid-19th century, land-grant universities have served a central role in research, teaching and economic development in their home states, with a mission to support local agriculture, the life sciences and entrepreneurship. Beyond the classroom and out among the fields, much of the institutions’ outreach work falls on their cooperative extension programs — statewide networks of county offices that handle requests from residents, collect information and work with local communities to share the latest in university research.
(Inside Higher Education, June 9, 2009)
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FOCUS: INNOVATION
NEW U-M LAB TO DEVELOP BIG IDEAS FOR SMALL WORLD

The University of Michigan’s new Robert H. Lurie Nanofabrication Facility plans to bring a whole new world of small to the features on the microdevices and nanodevices its faculty, students and corporate customers hope to build. Examples include sensors that evaluate water and air quality or implantable devices that will operate with wireless signals to bring sound to the deaf and sight to the blind. The lab is a $60 million project, including some $20 million worth of equipment such as furnaces required to grow the silicon crystals that are at the heart of many sensors and electronic devices....It is adjacent to the school’s existing fabrication facility, which was known as the MichiganNanofabrication Facility and Solid State Electronics Laboratory. Companies use the UM facilities to build prototype devices for optics, telecommunications, medical devices, water- and air-quality analysis and homeland security...In 2007, the existing lab was used by 22 for-profit companies, which were charged an hourly rate of $77 with a monthly cap of $7,700 each....The electronics lab has helped spin off more than a dozen companies that have received more than $100 million in venture capital. One spin-off, Ann Arbor-based Sensicore Inc., which had received $28.6 million in venture capital, was sold in March to a division of General Electric...Collaboration isn’t just a nice outcome — it’s a requirement, said Wise. “You can’t afford to put this technology every place,” he said. “It is far too expensive.”
(Crain’s Detroit Business, May 26, 2008)
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U.S. EXPERTS BEMOAN NATION’S LOSS OF STATURE IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE

Some of the nation’s leading scientists, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s top science adviser, today sharply criticized the diminished role of science in the United States and the shortage of federal funding for research, even as science becomes increasingly important to combating problems such as climate change and the global food shortage....Nina Fedoroff, a plant molecular biologist who is Rice’s science and technology adviser, said science in the United States “has really kind of died over a quarter of a century, even as the importance of science has grown.” Although the United States has long been the recognized global leader in science, Fedoroff said, that position is now being challenged by others, specifically China, which is raising its global profile. “They’re educating 10 times as many students as we are,” she said. “The next generation of scientists in other countries might not speak English.”
(Washington Post, May 29, 2008)
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THE NEXT AMERICAN FRONTIER

The entire world seems to be heading toward points of inflection. The developing world is embarking on the digital age. The developed world is entering the Internet era. And the United States, once again at the vanguard, is on the verge of becoming the world’s first Entrepreneurial Nation....In the course of the 20th century, Americans invented more milestone technologies and inventions, created more wealth and leisure time, and reorganized their institutions more times than any country had ever done before — despite a massive economic depression and two world wars. It all reached a crescendo in the magical year of 1969, with the creation of the Internet, the invention of the microprocessor and, most of all, a man walking on the moon....More than 200 million people now belong to just two social networks: MySpace and Facebook. And there are more than 80 million videos on YouTube, all put there by the same individual initiative. The most compelling statistic of all? Half of all new college graduates now believe that self-employment is more secure than a full-time job. Today, 80% of the colleges and universities in the U.S. now offer courses on entrepreneurship; 60% of Gen Y business owners consider themselves to be serial entrepreneurs, according to Inc. magazine. Tellingly, 18 to 24-year-olds are starting companies at a faster rate than 35 to 44-year-olds. And 70% of today’s high schoolers intend to start their own companies, according to a Gallup poll....Entrepreneurial America is likely to become even more innovative than it is today. And that innovation is likely to spread across society, not just as products and inventions, but new ways of living and new types of organizations....Being good entrepreneurs, it’s time to look ahead, develop a good plan, and then bet everything on ourselves.
(Michael Malone, author of The Protean Corporation in The Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2008)

WSU PICK EAGER TO HELP CITY
SOLUTIONS WOULD AID U.S., HE SAYS

Jay Noren, on the verge of being named Wayne State University’s 10th president, rounded out his workday Tuesday much the same way he began it — touting WSU as uniquely positioned to solve not only Detroit’s problems, but also those of the country. He nodded to Wayne State’s historical mission to provide access to higher education for metro Detroiters and the nontraditional student in a meeting Tuesday with students and staff. But he added that WSU’s partnership with Michigan State University and the University of Michigan is crucial to the institution’s future. “Not another three great universities can match the potential of the University Research Corridor,” he said.
(Detroit Free Press, May 14, 2008)
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INCREASED ACCESS, RETENTION TOP AGENDA FOR WAYNE STATE’S PRESIDENT DESIGNEE

Wayne State University’s finalist for the president’s post said Tuesday he plans to collaborate with the state’s other research universities and leverage their collective power to spur economic development in the area and increase access to college. Jay Noren, founding dean of the University of Nebraska’s Medical Center College of Public Health, also envisions the university serving as a national model for tackling problems like the need to improve retention for disadvantaged students.... Noren said Wayne State and the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, the other institutions in the University Research Corridor, “have a collection of power that exists nowhere else in the country” to confront the state’s challenging economy and hobbled workforce by expanding higher education opportunities. “This is the right time and the right place to set benchmarks for solving these problems nationally,” he said. “That’s very exciting.”
(Detroit News, May 13, 2008)
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STATE NEEDS LIFE SCIENCES — AND MORE

Alternative energy can play a critical role in helping us diversify the economy. Wind energy and battery technology, in particular, are two segments where Michigan can succeed. But life sciences, despite its profitability struggles, remains a strong point for Michigan, as well. The University Research Corridor isn’t lessening its commitment to life sciences, because it realizes the promises it holds. Michigan needs to do the same.
(Nathan Bomey, Ann Arbor Business Review, May 7, 2008)
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LANSING STATE JOURNAL EDITORIAL: HIGHER TUITION, ROOMING TABS ARE PRUDENT MOVES FOR SCHOOL

Students and parents who rely on Michigan State University face a more expensive future. The university is considering a 7 percent tuition increase this fall, on top of a 5.25 percent increase for room and board......For the coming school year, if all goes well for MSU and Gov. Jennifer Granholm gets her way on the state budget, MSU would see a state aid increase less than the rate of inflation. Some money is better than no increase or cuts, but no one could seriously claim these figures as evidence of state reinvestment. So, what’s a university to do? MSU President Lou Anna Simon and her team have chosen to invest, to defend the value of their product — while protecting student access. As tuition has gone up, so has university-based financial aid. It’s more expensive to attend MSU, but students have more help available from the school to do so. MSU also has to be mindful of its role in Michigan’s new economy. Universities are the hubs of knowledge economies, of research and the practical products that flow out of such work. The school would be remiss if, under political pressure over college costs, it diverted resources from its research and investment responsibilities. So, without a clear trend of greater state aid and without evidence that tuition increases have driven students from campus, MSU is taking the prudent course: Raise money to ensure the quality of its work.
(Lansing State Journal, May 6, 2008)
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THOMAS FRIEDMAN: WHO WILL TELL THE PEOPLE?

Harvard’s president, Drew Faust, just told a Senate hearing that cutbacks in government research funds were resulting in “downsized labs, layoffs of post docs, slipping morale and more conservative science that shies away from the big research questions.” Today, she added, “China, India, Singapore ... have adopted biomedical research and the building of biotechnology clusters as national goals. Suddenly, those who train in America have significant options elsewhere.” It is especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted — enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach for America. They want our country to matter again. They want it to be about building wealth anddignity — big profits and big purposes. When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, said Shriver, “no one can touch us.”
(Thomas Friedman, The New York Times, May 4, 2008)
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JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED

The marriage of Grand Rapids and MSU’s medical school is a union that could spawn successes in many areas. The entire region should prepare itself to take full advantage of the economic, education and employment options the union creates.
(Grand Rapid Press editoriial, May 3, 2008).
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RENEWABLE ENERGY STANDARDS GAIN MOMENTUM IN MICHIGAN

Support is building among local alternative energy leaders for the approval of a renewable portfolio standard in Michigan — which would require electricity companies to ensure that a certain percentage of their energy comes from renewable sources. Several industry experts who spoke April 22 at a University Research Corridor conference in Detroit said approval of an RPS is critical to kicking off an alternative energy boom.
(Ann Arbor Business Review, April 29, 2008)
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UNIVERSITIES LEAD THE WAY ON HEALTHY-PLANET TECHNOLOGY

Universities lead way on healthy-planet technology Today, Earth Day, Wayne State University is joining WWJ News Radio 950, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University to highlight the work being done in our state to encourage the development of environmentally sound technology. This event — Carbon Culture at the Crossroads: Embracing a Green Michigan — combines a business forum, policy discussion, and daylong radio broadcast. In 2006, Wayne State, U-M and MSU formed the University Research Corridor, a partnership designed to help turn around Michigan’s bleak economy. The URC member institutions promote scientific discovery and create jobs by attracting billions of dollars in research funding to Michigan, developing new technologies, and nurturing emerging businesses. Each of these major research universities has significant initiatives in the environmental sciences and alternative energy research.
(Irvin Reid, April 22, 2008)
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USAUTOPARTS TO JUMP START FUEL-ECONOMY REQUEST

A surplus Delphi research lab in Macomb County’s Shelby Township has been donated to an initiative that could help automakers meet stringent new federal fuel economy guidelines. USAutoPARTs, expected to be up and running by June, will involve auto suppliers, state government, the U.S. Department of Energy and universities in clearing roadblocks on the path to energy efficiency. If successful, the initiative could help create thousands of Michigan jobs and bring millions in federal research dollars to the state... Brown told me there is room today for 100 researchers in the lab. The first half-dozen or so are likely to be on-site employees of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Oak Ridge is interviewing engineers for the lab. The U.S. Army’s National Automotive Center in Warren also is involved. Other researchers initially will be loaned to the lab by participating suppliers. USAutoPARTs also will provide a place for colleges and universities to educate students in new automotive technologies. Wayne State University has signed up to teach evening classes there.
(Rick Haglund, Booth Newspapers, April 30, 2008)
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Nanotechnology: SE Michigan’s Industrial Revolution

Local universities have placed a heavy emphasis on nanotech research and their faculties, most notably those at the University of Michigan, have started up a number of nanotech-based firms...For Dexter, location has been everything. “It’s been very important to be near the universities,” says Toth. “I’m not sure we would have found another academic partner had it not been for our proximity to the University of Michigan.” Of specific importance to local nanotechnology firms, notes Toth, is the Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated MicroSystems (WIMS), which was established in 2000 by the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University. The Ann Arbor-based center, which is funded in part by the National Science Foundation, is merging micropower circuits, wireless interfaces, biomedical and environmental sensors and subsystems, and advanced packaging to create microsystems that will permeate virtually every aspect of society during the next 20 years.
(Metromode, April 24, 2008)
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AN UPSIDE IN STATE’S ECONOMY?

To those convinced nothing good can come from Michigan’s economic tailspin, that corporate retrenchment always gives talent a one-way ticket out of the state, I give you former Pfizer Inc. researcher Michael Wilson. The day after his 24-year career at the pharmaceutical giant ended last October, the potential casualty of Pfizer’s surprise move to close its Ann Arbor research labs started his new job as a researcher in the medicinal chemistry department of the University of Michigan’s College of Pharmacy. “It’s a change in the paradigm,” says Wilson, one of 13 Pfizer scientists recruited by the university in an effort to keep Pfizer talent from leaving the state and, secondly, to focus on drug discovery that could be commercialized in a spin-off or licensed to Big Pharma. “They’re starting to take the drug discovery paradigm away from the pharmaceutical companies and bring them into the universities,” he says. “We’ll have to see how it works out.” We won’t have to wait to understand this, however: The brains behind yet-to-be-discovered drugs are not the only new currency in Michigan’s burgeoning talent shift....As corporate heavyweights in Michigan, from Detroit’s automakers to drugmakers like Pfizer, restructure, reorganize and reduce headcount, savvy universities like Michigan, Michigan State and Wayne State are wooing mid-career professionals into mutually beneficial slots.... They are creations of the creative destruction roiling the Michigan economy, an upside that deserves more attention than it gets in a sea of gloom.
(Daniel Howes, The Detroit News, April 23, 2008)
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2 ANNOUNCEMENTS BOOST REGION AS LIFE-SCIENCES INVESTMENT DESTINATION

MPI Research Inc.’s major expansion in the Kalamazoo area, combined with Michigan State University beginning work on a new medical school campus in Grand Rapids, help to create mass that can make Michigan a larger destination for life-sciences investments. While certainly different in nature, the two projects will further the state’s slow economic transition and aid in the recruitment of talent and investments needed to develop biomedical and research in Michigan into larger economic sector.
(Business Review Western Michigan, April 22, 2008)
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UNIVERSITIES LEAD WAY ON HEALTHY-PLANET TECHNOLOGY

Today, Earth Day, Wayne State University is joining WWJ News Radio 950, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University to highlight the work being done in our state to encourage the development of environmentally sound technology. This event — Carbon Culture at the Crossroads: Embracing a Green Michigan — combines a business forum, policy discussion, and daylong radio broadcast. In 2006, Wayne State, U-M and MSU formed the University Research Corridor, a partnership designed to help turn around Michigan’s bleak economy. The URC member institutions promote scientific discovery and create jobs by attracting billions of dollars in research funding to Michigan, developing new technologies, and nurturing emerging businesses. Each of these major research universities has significant initiatives in the environmental sciences and alternative energy research....Sustainability must be much more than a philosophy or a trendy label: It also must be a way of life.
(Wayne State University President Irvin Reid, Detroit Free Press, April 22, 2008)
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TOYOTA INSTITUTE PLANS SEEN AS BIG COMMITMENT

Ann Arbor SPARK resident Michael Finney said he expects future employees recruited by Toyota to come from one of the schools allied in Michigan’s University Research Corridor, a cooperative effort among U-M, Michigan State University and Wayne State University. According to Spark, the three universities graduate between 160 and 180 Ph.D. students a year in mathematical and electrical, materials and mechanical engineering. “All three have outstanding Ph.D. programs and all have provided significant talent for automotive engineering companies and other engineering companies as well,” Finney said.
(The Ann Arbor News, April 3, 2008)
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INVESTMENT SEEN AS PROOF OF STATE’S AUTO PRESTIGE

In a move that underscores southeast Michigan’s importance and future as a global leader in automotive research, Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday that it has established a new institute near Ann Arbor that will spend $100 million on advanced research in the next four years. The investment will provide a research boon for the University of Michigan. Tuesday’s announcement comes in addition to a new, $187-million technical center in York Township that Toyota expects to move into by the end of the summer.... Robinet also said Toyota is smart for deciding to take advantage of U-M’s advanced research capabilities. In the future, Robinet said, more automotive innovation is likely to come from universities. Toyota said the institute is being led by Noboru Kikuchi, who is the Roger L. McCarthy professor of mechanical engineering at U-M and also a director of Toyota Central Research & Development Laboratories Inc. in Japan. U-M President Mary Sue Coleman credited Kikuchi’s longstanding relationship with Toyota for helping to cement Toyota’s research commitment. Coleman said U-M researchers are engaged in 29 research projects involving Toyota, a number she expects to grow. Toyota’s Brownlee said the new institute will study four aspects of “sustainable mobility”: advanced technologies, urban environments, energy and partnerships with government and academia.
(Detroit Free Press, April 2, 2008)
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CHOOSING PRISONS OVER COLLEGES

Michigan is one of only four states in the nation to spend more on prisons than higher education, according to a new report by the Pew Center for the States. We share the dubious distinction with Vermont, Oregon, and Connecticut. “Year by year, corrections budgets are consuming an ever-larger chunk of state general funds, leaving less and less in the pot for other needs,” the Pew researchers wrote, in a basic amplification of what many Michigan college student leaders, natural resources advocates, arts advocates, and local government leaders have shouted for years. Among those loud voices is former University of Michigan President James Duderstadt. In his new “Michigan Roadmap Redux,” Duderstadt cites no fewer than one dozen recent lengthy public policy reports outlining the urgent need to prepare the state’s present and future workforce for the competition of the global economy. Strong investment in higher education and decreased emphasis on prison spending are common to most, if not all, of those reports.
(The Center for Michigan, February 29, 2008)
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DISPUTED PLAN WOULD LET CONGRESS WEIGh IN ON STATE BUDGETS FOR COLLEGES

Some federal lawmakers are trying to press states to provide consistent spending increases to their higher-education systems, saying they recognize that the level of state aid colleges receive plays a critical role in how much institutions are able to rein in tuition increases and spend on improving their quality. The proposal would insert the federal government into state decisions about higher–education budgets, a new role that some colleges would welcome but that governors and state legislators call a dangerous precedent that might actually lead to less spending on higher education. The proposal, which was included in the version of legislation to renew the Higher Education Act that the U.S. House of Representatives passed this month.
(Chronicle of Higher Education, February 21, 2008)

U-M, MSU AND WSU TEAM ON $900K ENERGY PLAN

The state’s three largest research universities will invest $900,000 to encourage their faculty to work collaboratively on novel alternative energy research that could help shape energy policy. The presidents of Michigan State University, University of Michigan and Wayne State University formally announced the new energy initiative Tuesday as they jointly testified before a Senate committee on their growing importance to the economy and the need for the state’s investment in higher education. The research project is the latest collaboration between the three universities, which formed the University Research Corridor in November 2006 to spur economic development by leveraging their collective assets. By working together, the presidents say, they more effectively usher inventions from their labs to the marketplace and attract fresh jobs to the state.
(Detroit News, February 20, 2008)
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‘INNOVATION INDEX’ SHOWS UPTICK FOR MICHIGAN

Innovative economic activity in Michigan increased 2.8 percent from the middle of 2006 to the middle of 2007, according to a new “innovation index” developed by scholars at the University of Michigan-Dearborn School of Management. The UM-Dearborn researchers developed the index to track accelerations and decelerations in economic innovation in Michigan based on calculations of employment of "innovation workers," trends in venture capital, trademark registrations, incorporation activity, small business loans and gross job creation. The "Innovation Index" is a new project of the school´s Center for Innovation Research or iLabs. The UM-Dearborn researchers are planning to release the index quarterly to make it more useful for economic policy makers.
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DANIEL HOWES: EDUCATION IS KEY TO ECONOMIC GROWTH

Manufacturing doesn’t drive per-capita income growth or job growth or exclusively define the middle class anymore; jobs requiring higher levels of education do. They account for 75 percent of the job growth nationwide, as well as higher wages and faster per-capita income growth. Even in lackluster Michigan, the education and health care sectors over the past five years created 47,000 jobs — 40,000 of them in Metro Detroit. “This is a) good news and b) the only way we get out of this mess is to grow quicker,” says Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future. “Targeting a few high-tech industries is a strategy that’s unlikely to work.” ...“Quite simply, in a flattening world, the places with the greatest concentrations of talent win,” says the report, co-authored with Don Grimes at the University of Michigan. “Unless we substantially increase the proportion of college-educated adults — particularly in our biggest metropolitan areas — Michigan will continue to trend downwards in per capita income.”
(Daniel Howes, The Detroit News, February 11, 2008))
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RE-BRANDING MICHIGAN — WANTED: ENTREPRENEURS

Finney said he’s encouraged by the sense of urgency displayed by the state’s major research universities — U-M, Michigan State and Wayne State — which united in the University Research Corridor. A report by the Anderson Economic Group indicated that the URC had an economic impact of $12.8 billion in 2006. Presidents of the three universities have expressed a desire to become more involved in local business. U-M, for one, is starting a “business engagement center” aimed at facilitating communication and the sharing of ideas between the university and the business community. “We’re a very risk-averse state,” Forrest said. “And in my view the only solution to this problem ... is that the universities engage much more strongly with the business world.”
(Ann Arbor Business Review, February 7, 2008)

ENDOWMENTS: ON TUITION, GRANHOLM SHOULD BE TALKING TO LEGISLATURE

Gov. Jennifer Granholm has added her voice to the idea that the state’s flagship universities - Michigan State and Michigan - should use money from their endowments to ease tuition pressures on students.... But it´s also an ill-advised policy move, for MSU and U-M are about far more than undergraduate education. The endowments are a sign of strength, a reflection of their capability to pursue research that will strengthen the state economy. Michigan has 15 public universities, but only three are considered full research institutions – MSU, U-M and Wayne State. Such research schools are, in themselves, major economic engines. They create a culture of learning. They spin off business ventures and foster networks. They are doing the things Michigan needs to compete in the 21st century... Michigan wants these schools raising funds to support their research, their impact. Then there’s the whole question of need. Tuition has been rising steadily. Why? Well, part of the problem has been the policy of the state to reduce its share of the higher-education investment. In the 1972–73 school year, tuition and fees represented 25 percent of the funding for Michigan’s public colleges and universities; the rest came from state appropriations. Now, state appropriations are about 40 percent. It’s difficult to call out universities for raising tuition when the state´s own spending policies have fostered rising rates. And it is not like rising tuition has suddenly made MSU, for example, a ghost campus. For the 2007–08 year, MSU received 24,455 applications for enrollment – a 5 percent increase over the prior year. MSU’s enrollment this fall also rose, from 45,520 to 46,045... Granholm and the members of the Legislature need to have a good, long discussion with voters this year to clarify state funding policy for higher education. Calling on MSU to spend down endowments simply distracts from the real issue. If the state wants to support tuition breaks, it should step up and do it.
(Lansing State Journal editoral, February 4, 2008)
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TOM WALSH

"It’s incredible," said Blouse, president and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, who returned Wednesday from a five–city, 11–day trip to scout business opportunities for Michigan companies to profit from India´s explosive growth. "There are many, many companies there that are flush with cash," he told me, "and they want to do business here in the States. They speak English. They’re from a democracy. They have similar ethical beliefs about the importance of intellectual property." Blouse said plans are afoot to set up an incubator for Indian entrepreneurs to grow companies in Detroit´s TechTown development near Wayne State University. A couple of Indian companies have already staked out turf in Michigan via acquisition: Bharat Forge bought Lansing-based Federal Forge out of bankruptcy in 2005 and has been expanding output of auto parts. Wipro Technologies purchased mechanical engineering and design firm Quantech Global Services LLC of Okemos in mid–2006 and plans to boost employment. India, of course, isn´t the only growth hotbed abroad. China’s economy has been surging at a 10‰ annual clip for 15 years. Russia is hot. Vietnam is on the rise.
(Detroit Free Press, February 3, 2008)
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GOV. JENNIFER GRANHOLM: 2008 STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

A renewable energy goal is a powerful tool to attract alternative energy jobs, but there are other tools, too. We are going to create Centers of Excellence across the state to bring alternative energy companies and Michigan universities together to create new products and new jobs....No one doubts that the best way to ensure that Michigan’s people will succeed in the face of global economic change is to ensure a quality education for every child and training for every worker. Our goal: double the number of college graduates to give Michigan the best-educated workforce in the nation. To reach that goal, we’ll make progress throughout our education system, from preschool to grad school to on-the-job training.....As much as we want our students to succeed in our K-12 schools, we also want them to succeed in college. Unfortunately, far too many of our students enter college but don’t graduate. The higher education budget I propose will take aim at that problem by rewarding colleges and universities when their students complete degrees. We’ll also reward them when they create opportunity for low-income students, and when they find ways to turn research ideas into businesses. We will invest more in higher education and we will expect more in return.
(Gov. Jennifer Granholm, State of the State address, January 29, 2008)
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SELLING MICHIGAN: R&D PUSHED AS REASON FOR CHINESE TO LOCATE IN STATE

Southeast Michigan economic-development organizations are racking up plenty of airline miles to China. Their mission: Develop and nurture relationships with Chinese manufacturers that could lead to more automotive research and development operations in Michigan. Five Chinese automotive companies are participating in the North American International Auto Show this year — four more than last year. That means potential opportunities for economic-development organizations to promote Michigan’s R&D brainpower and sell the state as a place to invest....Other Chinese executives are looking for management training or seek to recruit Michigan automotive engineers.... The increased Chinese presence has been an organizing rally for economic-development groups such as the Michigan Economic Development Corp., Ann Arbor Spark, the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Detroit Regional Economic Partnership and Wayne and Oakland county economic—development departments. The organizations are working apart and together with the goal of bringing Asian and Indian companies to Michigan. Meaningful progress, these economic leaders say, is made by understanding opportunities and working persistently.... By working together on pitches, organizations say they are using resources more effectively.

"We’ve taken a look at business opportunities in China and the Middle East. We have limited resources, so we tried to be opportunistic," said Michael Finney, CEO of Ann Arbor Spark, which is working with both the MEDC and Wayne County. Finney said the first priority is selling Michigan as a whole to Chinese businesses."If we get interest, we think they might want to locate research and development activity in the Ann Arbor area. "We’ve also had meaningful discussions with Wayne County and expect more of that to come," he said
(Crain’s Detroit Business, January 14, 2008)
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U.S. DOMINANCE IN SCIENCE AT RISK, REPORT SAYS

The United States remains the world leader in scientific and technological innovation, but its dominance is threatened by economic development elsewhere, particularly in Asia, the National Science Board said on Tuesday in its biennial report on science and engineering....The report, available at www.nsf.gov/statistics/indicators, recommends increased financing for basic research and greater “intellectual interchange” between researchers in academia and industry. The board also called for better efforts to track the globalization of manufacturing and services in the high-tech sector, and their implications for the American economy.
(New York Times, January 16, 2008)

WSU TO OPEN CHINESE CENTER JAN 31

Educators at Michigan State University and Wayne State University are teaming up with Chinese educators to teach students Mandarin and more about Chinese culture. It’s part of the China wave many believe will be vital to Michigan’s future. “We want to offer programs that help businesses and schools here in Michigan,” said Bob Thomas, dean of WSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Science, who is in charge of the university’s new Confucius Institute. “Being able to speak Chinese will only help our kids compete for jobs of the future,” added Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who has championed offering Mandarin in his county’s schools.Wayne State’s Confucius Institute recently won approval from the State of Michigan to offer a program to certify teachers of the Chinese language. The WSU Confucius Institute will hold its official grand opening Jan. 31. WSU is teaming with Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, to offer the program. It’s the second Confucius Institute in Michigan, one of 26 in the United States and one of more than 100 worldwide that have started in the past few years. The Confucius Institutes are joint ventures between a Chinese college and a school in another country and are subsidized in part by grants from the Chinese government
(Detroit Free Press, January 13, 2007)

MICHIGAN’S BRAIN DRAIN IS MYTH, DEMOGRAPHER SAYS: MORE COLLEGE GRADS MOVED TO STATE THAN LEFT IT

Michigan has neither a chronic loss of people or a brain drain of college graduates, the state demographer said Friday. The state experienced a net loss of 30,000 people from 2006 through 2007. But that’s not nearly as bad as the early 1980s, said demographer Ken Darga. He testified to state economists and lawmakers who met to determine the state’ revenues for this year and next. Darga said the media perpetuates myths about Michigan’s population. He said while many young people and college graduates leave the state, about the same typically migrate to Michigan as well. The same is true for other states, he said. “Every state has an out-migration of young people. Young adults move around a lot” Darga said. He said from 2000 to 2004, more people with college degrees moved into Michigan than left.
(Detroit Free Press, January 11, 2008)
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TECHNICAL SKILLS ARE VITAL TO STATE’S FUTURE

Two new studies underscore the importance of education — particularly technical education — for Michigan residents looking for more financial security. One of the studies also indicates that jobs are going begging for lack of skills on the part of applicants.... More than two-thirds of those firms surveyed indicated that they had had trouble finding workers who met their requirements in the past year. The survey was taken by the polling firm EPIC-MRA. Ed Sarpolus, vice president of the firm, says employers were looking for math and science skills, but also communications ability. The survey noted that as many as 30,940 jobs in the small to mid-size business sector could go unfilled. Another study, done for Automation Alley, a business and government group in southeast Michigan with a focus on supporting and growing the region’s technology industry, noted that salaries for skilled workers grew even though the number of jobs in the region shrank as a result of the state’s economic slowdown....The study added that the universities in the region for three years running spent more than $1 billion annually for research and development, an increase of more than 50 percent over such spending 10 years ago.The Automation Alley universities did more than two-thirds of all such spending by Michigan’s universities. The importance of a good technical education for this state’s future — and for job opportunities for students — can’t be overemphasized by parents, educators and political leaders.
(Detroit News editorial, January 10, 2008)
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U-M, MSU RISE ON LIST OF BEST COLLEGE VALUES

Kiplinger&rs each year rates public universities, factoring in things like cost, how selective the school is, its graduation rate, and the average debt for students finishing at the school.Two of Michigan’s universities today appear on Kiplinger’s Personal Finance annual list of 100 Best Values in Public Colleges. The University of Michigan reclaimed its 2006 ranking at 16th, after falling from that spot last year to 19th. Michigan State University ranked 61th, jumping several notches from last year’s ranking at 85th and in 2006 at 94th. In 2007—08, public college education throughout the country cost in-state students an average $13,589, or a 5.9% increase over the previous academic year, the report noted. U-M costs about $19,657, and MSU costs about $17,222. However, financial aid brings down the average actual costs to less than $12,000 at each school, according to Kiplinger’s.
To see the full list or for more details, go online to: www.kiplinger.com/links/college08.
(Detroit Free Press, January 7, 2008)
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3 TECH FIRMS TO ADD 532 JOBS IN STATe

Three Ann Arbor-area technology companies are planning expansions projected to add a combined 532 jobs during the next five years, helping to ease some of the sting from Pfizer Inc.’s decision early this year to close its Ann Arbor research complex, where 2,100 people worked. The Michigan Economic Growth Authority is expected to approve tax incentives today for the projects at ProQuest LLC, Danotek Motion Technologies and Accuri Cytometers. The three firms chose to expand on sites in Ann Arbor, Pittsfield Township and Scio Township, respectively, over competing offers from Maryland, Indiana and Colorado... Other recent economic strides for the Ann Arbor area include the decision in September by Spanish aerospace firm Grupo Aernnova to locate a new engineering center and 400 jobs in Pittsfield Township, and the occupation of a vacated Pfizer lab by three new life-sciences companies in October.
(Tom Walsh, Detroit Free Press, December 18, 2007)
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WAYNE STATE BRAIN WAVE

Over the last year, traumatic brain injury has become a hot national topic. Last summer, Congress allocated $300 million to fund research into TBI and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In November, the Wayne State Biomedical Engineering Department submitted a $25-million proposal to become the national center of TBI research. Under the proposal, Wayne State would be the lead institution, managing a consortium of 40 researchers from 14 institutions, including the University of Michigan, Henry Ford Hospital, John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit and several military labs, including TACOM in Warren.
(Detroit Free Press, December 18, 2007)
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LOYALTY A FACTOR FOR DELTA DENTAL: CEO CITES NURTURING ENVIRONOMENT IN AREA AS KEY IN EXPANSION

There are a lot of reasons for Delta Dental of Michigan to grow here, the company’s chief said Monday....The project joins a host of work by other insurers growing in the Lansing area. Together, they’re spending millions with the potential to hire more than 1,000 people....Having a cluster helps the companies feed off each other, Sepic said. They can use some of the same service companies and help create a pool of similarly skilled workers. Delta Dental’s Fleszar also said being close to Michigan State University and the University of Michigan helps provide the types of workers his insurance company needs, such as financial, actuarial and technological people. Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Monday said Delta Dental’s decision reinforces the strength of that talent pool.
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U-M BUSINESS CENTER TO BUILD ECONOMIC LINK

The University of Michigan has taken another step toward using its prowess to boost the state and local economy. A new center for bridging the gap between business and the university is set to open in February. Dubbed the Business Engagement Center, it will be a place for entrepreneurs and others to connect with U-M research and resources...It’s conceived of as a university-wide, one-stop shop for both university researchers and those interested in tapping U-M’s early-stage technology. Ken Nisbet, executive director of U-M’s Office of Technology Transfer, describes the center as a concierge service, with its staff helping make connections and providing information....This kind of operation makes sense, and reflects an acknowledgment that U-M needs to do more to foster economic development. Forrest has said the center’s success will be measured in part by the amount of use it gets, and that’s a good start. We hope that officials actively solicit feedback about its effectiveness — and follow up with changes, if necessary. U-M officials have set a goal of becoming a more effective player in the economy. The new center is another solid next step toward reaching that goal.
(Ann Arbor News editorial, December 13, 2007)

MICH. MISSES LINK BETWEEN JOBS, COLLEGE

Sarpolus asked Michigan adults what role they want the public schools to play. Forty-six percent said the schools should train students for jobs they can get with a high school degree, while 41 percent said college preparation should be the mission.While Michigan residents wait for the factory doors to reopen, up to 80,000 jobs in the technical and medical fields are unfilled for lack of qualified workers. Michigan’s hospitals and health care institutions turn over 100,000 good-paying jobs every year. Many go to out-of-staters or immigrants because the state doesn’t produce enough skilled, native-born workers. Susan Corey, manager of workforce services for the Southeast Michigan Community Alliance, says a search of Web sites turns up more than 3,000 health care openings right now in Metro Detroit; 609 banking jobs; nearly 3,000 spots in accounting fields, and, despite the troubles of the automakers, 900 engineering positions. There are even 32 openings in the aerospace industry.... So instead of just screaming college, college, college over and over again, it might be more effective to focus on the specific jobs that are going begging in Michigan, and what it takes to get them.
(Nolan Finley, Detroit News, December 9, 2007)
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OTHER VOICES: RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK CAN TEACH US

We were describing the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina 50 years ago. It had the second-lowest per-capita income in the U.S., with only 3.3 percent of its jobs in high-tech businesses (compared to 10.3 percent nationwide). Today it is ranked among the top-10 economic regions in the country, with per-capita income 5 percent higher than the national average.

Research Triangle Park played a vital role in that transformation. On Nov. 15, Rick Weddle, president of the park, told that story to a Leaders Without Borders audience, focusing on the role that talent played in his region’s renaissance. Today, that region absorbs the talent grown by its colleges and universities, and it attracts talent from around the world. In its time, Triangle Park benefited from cheap real estate, a low-cost business climate and the post-World War II industrial boom. Today, though, Weddle says those factors are secondary to that of human capital — the talent pool. “People are your greatest asset, and you’ve got some pretty good folks,” he said. Weddle showed that North Carolina and Michigan produce college graduates and post-graduate degrees at comparable rates, and Michigan generates higher levels of R&D funding. Colleges and universities will shape that talent into the raw material of the new information economy, according to A New Agenda for a New Michigan by Michigan Future, which says, “Research universities may be the most important assets Michigan has. ... One can make a strong case that the most productive state and local economic growth policies over the past several decades have been public investments in research universities in Austin, San Diego, and North Carolina’s Research Triangle.” According to Weddle, tobacco ruled his region, just as the auto industry has ruled Detroit. In North Carolina, building a critical mass of research and scientific laboratories and facilities meant loosening tobacco’s hold on decision-making and resources. Weddle’s advice to Detroit echoes that of Michigan Future, which says, “The odds are that a new leadership structure needs to be created. Current leadership is predominantly connected to the old, declining economy. ... The most likely place to start building a new leadership is with leaders of those enterprises that are competing nationally or, better yet, internationally for talent. They are the enterprises who care most about our ability to prepare, retain, and attract talent.” Technologically, our leap from manufacturing to the information economy isn’t as wide a chasm as North Carolina’s leap from agriculture to high-tech. The knowledge and experience that deploy airbags, keep paint from fading, machine precision parts and unlock our cars when we’ve locked the keys inside should adapt readily to targeted growth industries, such as alternative energy, homeland security, advanced manufacturing and life sciences. Research Triangle Park invented itself from whole cloth. We in Southeast Michigan have two advantages: We can learn from Triangle Park’s success. And, we have many of the raw materials that can jump-start the vehicles taking us to economic recovery.
(Barbara Gray, executive director of Leadership Detroit and Lisa Kolody, executive director of Leadership Windsor-Essex in Crain’s Detroit Business, December 3, 2007)
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MICHIGAN HAS TOOLS TO FIX ECONOMY: USING COLLEGES AS A RESOURCE IS KEY

North Carolina’s economy added 68,200 jobs from October 2006 to October 2007, while Michigan lost 75,000 jobs. The Research Triangle Park, now 7,000 acres, was formed in 1959 on scrub farmland located midway between three major universities — Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State. It now has more than 40,000 full-time workers at 160 companies and research agencies, including IBM, Cisco, Nortel Networks, Lenovo, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Pretty impressive, eh? Yes it is, but as Weddle pointed out, North Carolina’s key brainpower assets don’t measure up to Michigan’s. Michigan’s top three universities — Michigan, Michigan State and Wayne State — had 9,400 graduate students and post-doctorates in science, engineering and health care in 2004. North Carolina’s big three schools had only 8,000. In addition, Michigan’s top universities attracted more research and development money than North Carolina’s, with the University of Michigan easily the most robust research university in the two states. “There is lots of opportunity in Michigan,” Weddle said. But the state’s business community, government and universities must work more closely together to grow the economy... U-M President Mary Sue Coleman has been very active of late in spurring formation of the regional economical development group Ann Arbor SPARK and joining with MSU and WSU to form the University Research Corridor alliance a year ago. Those are good first steps. But the Research Triangle Park has been around for 48 years now in North Carolina. Can Michigan’s flagship universities, business and political leaders chart a course and remain committed to it for the long haul? Our state’s economic future may depend on it.
(Tom Walsh, Detroit Free Press, November 23, 2007)
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COLLEGES RATES HIGH IN GLOBAL REACH

Michigan State University and the University of Michigan are among the nation’s leaders for international education opportunities, according to a report released Monday. MSU ranks second in the nation with 2,558 undergraduate and graduate students studying abroad and earning credit for school.
(Detroit News, November 16, 2007)
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AN INTERNATIONAL TWIST

Michigan State University is No. 2 in the nation for sending students to study abroad; and it ranks 16th in the nation for bringing international students here to study. Those numbers are impressive and help reinforce the value of the University Research Corridor institutions — MSU, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. Indeed, U-M is ranked sixth in the nation for attracting international students. According to research for the URC, skilled immigrants drawn here by the higher education opportunities have a major impact on Michigan’s economy. In fact, 33 percent of high tech startups in the state from 1995 to 2005 were launched by foreign-born founders, many of whom came here to study at a URC school. Michigan’s manufacturing economy has been buffeted by the “global economy,” but the strong efforts of the research universities to become international leaders in educating the knowledge economy workforce should give the state hope of a brighter future.
(Lansing State Journal editorial, November 17, 2007)
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BEFRIEND THE WORLD STARTING AT COLLEGE LEVEL

A more streamlined visa process has helped top schools such as the University of Michigan and Michigan State University build on their long-standing reputations for international studies. Their recruiting of overseas students pays off beyond bringing diversity and a global reputation to campus. Of the high-tech start-ups created in Michigan between 1995-2005, a third were begun by foreigners drawn to the state by one of its universities. That’s a fact Michigan should be helping its universities trumpet and build on.
(Detroit Free Press editorial, November 16, 2007)
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U-M PRESIDENT MARY SUE COLEMAN: FIVE YEARS FORWARD

For the past year, we have worked arm-in-arm with Michigan State University and Wayne State University to capitalize upon our combined research assets for the state’s benefit. As the University Research Corridor, our institutions bring in 95 percent of all the external R&D dollars that come into the state. And together we conduct well over $1.3 billion in research activity. It is probable that within five years, U-M will cross the threshold of $1 billion annually in research, and the contributions of MSU and Wayne State will only add to the firepower of the URC. And still, U-M can do more. For our state to prosper, we absolutely must cultivate a stronger culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. We should remember with pride that pioneers like Henry Ford, Herbert H. Dow and W.K. Kellogg shaped the 20th century and made our state a powerhouse of manufacturing and technology. And we must remind ourselves and our community that U-M was founded to improve the public welfare through engagement. Drawing on this heritage, we are prepared to embark on a partnership with society that is a first for higher education. Joining with Michigan’s other public universities and leading foundations across the state, we propose a collaboration to drive innovation and entrepreneurship for developing knowledge-based industries in Michigan. The Michigan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, with at least $100 million available in resources, will be funded by foundations and universities themselves. The Initiative will advance commercialization of university research, promote partnerships between higher education and industry, and propel the work of entrepreneurial students and faculty. This will evolve into a massive public-private partnership. It is, in effect, an investment in the people and ideas that emerge from our public universities as drivers of a knowledge-based economy. We have received $2 million in seed funding from the C.S. Mott Foundation for our initial planning. With supporters from the Council of Michigan Foundations and the foundation community at the table with us, we look forward to launching the Initiative in the months ahead. There are many, many details to process, but this should not hinder us from finding ways to jumpstart the Michigan economy.
(U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, November 15, 2007)
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BIO R&D CENTER PROGRESSING

Transforming a former Pfizer Inc. lab in Holland into a bio research-and-development center is on track amid high interest in the project...Pfizer decided last May to donate the closed $50 million facility on the north shore of Lake Macatawa to Michigan State University...Supporters of the project envision the center becoming a hub of bio R&D into materials using agricultural and plant materials, rather than petroleum or chemicals.... The growing demand for sustainable materials and products has made the bio center primarily a market-driven project, MSU President Lou Anna Simon said. “It’s gone a bit from a university-driven research program to an industry-driven research program,” Simon said. “We’re getting more and more participants and better ideas than we had in the beginning.” MSU aims to raise about $5 million for the project, Simon said.
(Michigan Business News, November 12, 2007)
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COMPANY TRACKS ECONOMIC EVOLUTION

Michigan is evolving from a factory-based economy toward a knowledge-based economy. But measuring this transition is not as easy as it may seem... Michigan ranks second among the states with more than $16 billion a year in such spending by government, universities and industry, according to the National Science Foundation. But there, too, the spending reflects Michigan’s huge automotive base. Auto companies spend the vast majority of the state’s R&D dollars. To get around the difficulties, the Anderson Group tracks several other data points: Enrollment rates in engineering and science schools, patent registration activity, R&D spending at universities and other indicators. A lot of the information comes from the NSF, and much of it is encouraging. Three schools — University of Michigan, Michigan State and Wayne State — rank in the top 75 universities nationwide for research spending. U-M ranks second in the nation behind only Johns Hopkins. And in an encouraging diversification, two-thirds of university research spending in the state, or nearly $900 million a year, goes to life sciences.
(Detroit Free Press, November 11, 2007)
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UPDATE MICHIGAN’S EMBRYONIC RESEARCH LAWS

The state has pinned some of its hopes for economic recovery on creating a biomedical medical research corridor by developing synergy among the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University and medical research institutes in Grand Rapids. Michigan’s laws are a reflection of right-to-life advocates who argue any embryonic research is an affront to life and prefer adult stem cell research. But the reality is that tens of thousands of embryos already are discarded or await that fate. Advocates of reform are exploring a ballot initiative for 2008. It shouldn’t come to that. The state Legislature should act to bring Michigan’s stem cell research laws in line with federal regulations.
(Detroit News editorial, November 8, 2007)
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HOPEFUL SIGN

Simon is less inclined to lament Michigan State’s football woes versus Michigan than to extol the “rhythm of collaboration” that exists between Michigan State and Michigan, which is presided over by Simon’s friend and colleague, Mary Sue Coleman. There is a new, unprecedented synergy of research and economic resources being infused into the Great Lakes basin by the schools, she said, in step with other Big Ten universities that are attempting to reshape the region, commercially and culturally.
(Lynn Henning, Detroit News, November 7, 2007)
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PICK A TEAM, AND CHEER ON TWO WINNING SCHOOLS

The great thing about all this for Michigan is to be the home of two such renowned institutions, each a mighty contributor to the history of the state and each with a major role to play in the future of Michigan. Lost in all the hoopla over their athletic rivalry are the many joint ventures they undertake in their classrooms, laboratories and outreach programs to make Michigan and, indeed, the world, a better place. And for a few hours on one Saturday each fall, they provide an entertaining distraction from the issues of the day. In these tough times for Michigan, that’s a real public service. Go blue. Go green. Whatever the final score, the people of Michigan win with these two giants around.
(Detroit Free Press editorial, November 2, 2007)
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GRANHOLM’S LEGACY LIES WITH BOOSTING THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

As a gifted communicator, she can go directly to the people of Michigan and build support for the investments we need, especially in higher education. Those investments might include putting more money in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, which futurists say will be the Midwest’s only new economy job hub outside Chicago, than in schools such as Ferris State University. Not all schools create jobs equally and thus shouldn’t be funded equally. Another idea: Hold a special bond issue or tax initiative for all state research universities, the new job generators.
(Amber Arellano, The Detroit News, October 26, 2007)
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PHIL POWER: WE’RE STRANGLING A HUGE ASSET

Several hundred people who attended last week’s two-day conference in Ann Arbor on “The Role of Engaged Universities in Economic Transformation” were showered with the new reality of how central our research institutions are to the economic future of our troubled state.....Any company facing trouble immediately identifies its most important, proprietary competitive assets and mounts a sustained investment program to build them up, gain market share and build the bottom line. Michigan, by contrast, has chosen to strangle one of our few competitive assets. The wonder is not that people are dismayed. The wonder is that people — especially those who have children and who care about the future — are not absolutely furious and marching on Lansing and talking about recalls over this.
(Phil Power, The Center for Michigan, October 25, 2007)
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ANN ARBOR NEWS: BENEFITS OF RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES ARE CLEAR

This week’s economic impact forum at the University of Michigan was meant to both showcase the strength of the state’s three major research universities, as well as to discuss what more they can do to help Michigan’s economy. It’s in the best interest of U-M, Michigan State University and Wayne State University to do both — economic impact is a major selling point to state lawmakers who hold the purse strings for part of their funding. United a year ago under the umbrella moniker University Research Corridor, the universities recently released an annual report — online at www.urcmich.org/commentary/2007AnnualReport.pdf — to put some numbers to their claims. Those numbers are impressive.....At this week’s two-day event, U-M also gave updates in projects focused on economic development that have been in the works for several months....hese are all tangible benefits, and signs of what we hope is a continued growing engagement in economic development. It’s hard to overestimate the importance of U-M for both our local economy and the state.
(October 18, 2007)
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THE DETROIT NEWS: EDUCATION INVESTMENTS PAY OFF IN JOBS, GROWTH
U-M, MSU, WSU HIGHLIGHT NEW PRODUCTS, DEVELOPMENTS

The underlying message at the Ann Arbor conference was clear: Invest in higher education, and the state will reap enormous benefits. Such work takes more money than Michigan has been devoting to higher education. Instead, the Granholm administration has slashed university funding, and the schools have responded with destructive tuition hikes, making it more difficult for middle- and working-class students to attend college. As they finalize the budget, the governor and lawmakers should find other areas to cut to commit more money to higher education. Making education a much higher budget priority will send the message that Michigan is prepared to compete for 21st-century jobs.
(Detroit News editorial, October 17, 2007)
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TOM WALSH: WHO SHOULD SHAKE STATE OUT OF RUT?

Are Michigan’s major universities ready to step up to a more activist role in fostering economic growth, including a more direct role in local and national politics? It’s not something that comes naturally. The University of Michigan has long existed as an intellectual outpost, in many ways a world apart from the hurly-burly of industrial Detroit... And MSU, WSU and all the other state universities depend in part on the largesse of government for financing. Can they afford to take bold, sometimes controversial positions on issues in those many areas where business and economics meet public policy? If not our big prestigious universities, who will step forward to lead Michigan’s complacent people and hapless politicians out of the economic wilderness?
(Tom Walsh, Detroit Free Press, October 16, 2007)
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BIG THREE UNIVERSITIES TOUT THEIR ECONOMIC VALUE TO MICHIGAN

The University of Michigan has helped transform a former Pfizer facility into an incubator for startup companies, just one example of how research universities can rev up the economy, U-M leaders said today. The announcement was one initiative unveiled today at a University Research Corridor conference on the role universities have in economic development. The research corridor, an alliance of U-M, Michigan State University and Wayne State University, was formed in November to more effectively usher inventions from their labs to the marketplace and to attract fresh jobs to Michigan. “The University Research Corridor is still a fledging organization, but we are leveraging our assets across the state to accelerate economic growth,” U-M President Mary Sue Coleman said in a statement.
(Marisa Schultz, The Detroit News, October 15, 2007)
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BREWED FRESH DAILY: NEWS AND OPINION FROM CLEVELAND, OHI

Talk of merging The University of Akron and Cleveland State University is a costly diversion. Instead, focus on strengthening collaborations. Think university collaborations in Research Triangle. Or, Michigan’s University Research Corridor.
(Brewed Fresh Daily: News and opinion from Cleveland, Ohio, October 1, 2007)
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REID LEAVES STRONG WAYNE STATE LEGACY

Wayne State University President Irvin Reid is resigning his position next year, but he leaves the university in good shape. The university’s first African-American president helped form the University Research Corridor with the University of Michigan and Michigan State University to leverage their research efforts for better economic effect. He revitalized campus life and joined with a private developer in creating a major apartment complex in midtown. Enrollment grew, and the university conducted its first major fund-raising effort. That’s a legacy that will pay off for Wayne State long after Reid is gone.
(Detroit News editorial, September 29, 2007)

STATE HIGHER ED FUNDING LAGS, WHILE OTHERS INVEST

As Michigan’s state legislators scrap over whether to give the state’s universities a moderate funding increase or no new money at all, other Midwestern states are investing in higher education. And, in some cases, they’re investing big. In Ohio, for example, the state legislature has agreed to pump $254 million into the state’s public universities to pay for a two-year tuition freeze. he legislature also ponied up $150 million to recruit senior scholars who do research in fields such as advanced materials, biosciences, information technology and alternative energy and to give scholarships to students studying math and science. In Indiana, the state’s universities got a 9.8 percent increase in state funding for the next two years, including $20 million for Indiana’s three research universities to expand their life sciences programs and $30 million more to build their research operations generally. The University of Minnesota system got a 14.3 percent state funding increase for the next two years. The state’s college got a 12 percent increase. In Iowa, where state coffers are swelling, thanks in part to a growing biofuels industry, public universities are getting a state funding increase of almost 10 percent...Michigan ranks 47th in growth of higher education funding over the past decade, according to the Center for the Study of Education Policy.
(Matthew Miller, Lansing State Journal, September 24, 2007
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THIS REGION MUST DIVERSIFY TO SUCCEED

Southeast Michigan has a rare opportunity to diversify into two crucial industries for which it is uniquely positioned: biotechnology and alternative energy...In the ’70s and early ’80s, when North Carolina was in a situation similar to Detroit and Michigan, it crafted the “research triangle” to attract and replace jobs lost in the textile industry. North Carolina relied on its low cost of living, access to labor and universities, and physical beauty to attract world-class companies...The success and growth of the biotech and alternative-energy industries is just the technology engine we need. With access to degreed engineers and technically skilled workers who have recently been downsized or are looking for job changes, the Detroit region needs to capitalize on its assets and, more importantly, start to behave and think positively about itself and the chances of success.
(Susan Brennan, director of the manufacturing business office at Ford Motor Co. writing in Crain’s Detroit Business, October 8, 2007)

UNIVERSITIES CAN PLAY MAJOR ROLE IN ECONOMY

One of the greatest assets our state holds is the strength of its universities. From expertise in health care and business to the depth of research and the sheer buying power of these institutions, higher education plays a major role in Michigan’s economy. That role will be highlighted at a two-day regional conference this month in Ann Arbor, organized by the state’s three major research universities: the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University. The Oct. 15-16 event is tied to a National Academies Study titled, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm.” But for Michigan, the economic storm isn’t just gathering — it’s already here, in all its fury. In a letter to participants, U-M vice president for research, Stephen Forrest, writes that all speakers have been asked “to put forward ideas that are ‘revolutionary, not evolutionary.’” Indeed, we hope this event is infused with urgency, with the kind of revolutionary ideas that Forrest calls for.
(Ann Arbor News editorial, October 1, 2007)
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UNIVERSITIES’ RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Not even the shrewdest private equity gurus on Wall Street can expect a 700 percent return on investment. But that’s what Michigan gets with its Big Three research universities, according to the universities’ latest economic study. The study, by Anderson Economic Group in Lansing, calculates a $12.8 billion annual economic impact by University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University. All that for an annual state budget appropriation of less than $1.8 billion (and shrinking). Turning all those bright minds and research dollars into “tech transfers” that directly grow and diversify the economy remains one of the univesities’ biggest challenges and responsibilities....Other states are competing hard. This is the worst time in Michigan’s history to deplete the higher education storehouse. It is the best time for us to invest in the power of the future.
(The Center for Michigan newsletter, September 28, 2007)

U-M TECH TRANSFER: RECORD NUMBER OF INVENTION DISCLOSURES IN FY2007

University of Michigan researchers disclosed 329 new inventions in fiscal year 2007 — an all-time high and a 14 percent increase over the previous year. Results also included 144 U.S. patent applications and 87 issued patents in that same time period. Royalty revenues increased 19 percent to nearly $13 million, providing a source for continued reinvestment that will strengthen future interactions with industry. U-M negotiated 91 technology agreements, including seven with new business startups in the last fiscal year, which ended June 30. The total number of U-M startups over the last seven years is 62, with more than 60 percent of the new businesses located in Michigan — primarily in greater Ann Arbor. “This success is a prime reason Ann Arbor was singled out as being on the verge of becoming one of the world’s hot spots for startups by Fast Company magazine in July,” said Ken Nisbet, executive director of U-M Tech Transfer.
(U-M Tech Transfer, September 28, 2007)

NEEDED: STATE LEADERS TO INVEST IN HIGHER EDUCATION

College students in Michigan are concerned at the failure of the Michigan Legislature to invest in higher education and keep tuition affordable. For example, at Michigan State University, state appropriations decreased from 2000 to 2005 by 12 percent, while average undergraduate expenses increased by 35 percent. This demonstrates that student tuition dollars are used to make up deficiencies in state funding. As participants in the knowledge creation industry, we are concerned about the Legislature’s inability to address future needs of the state. Funding for higher education is essential to bring Michigan’s economic transformation to fruition...Other states are competing hard. This is the worst time in Michigan’s history to deplete the higher education storehouse. It is the best time for us to invest in the power of the future.
(Debbie Chang of Students United to Promote Enhanced Revenues for Education and Economic Development, September 28, 2007)

BIG THREE SCHOOLS ACCOUNT FOR 68,803 MICHIGAN JOBS

“This is no time for the state to say we’re going to keep the status quo,” U-M President Mary Sue Coleman said. “We’re in a fight for our lives here.” The three, which last year formed the University Research Corridor, are pushing state government to separate their funding from Michigan’s 12 smaller universities. Increased funding could someday put the corridor in the same league as California’s Silicon Valley, North Carolina’s Research Triangle and Boston’s health care and high-tech clusters, say Coleman and her colleagues at MSU and Wayne.
(Rick Haglund, Booth Newspapers, September 24, 2007)

THE ENTREPRENEURS PERSPECTIVE

Michigan must put its money where its mouth is as it identifies promising strategies for change. The state, for instance, talks a big game when it comes to the importance of nurturing and attracting the creative class. But the recent trend is to continually slash education spending even as the overall state budget grows. That, he said, is a sure way to stifle the output of talented workers and erode the state’s competitive advantage in the Digital Age. “The only solution to our economic problems is knowledge and innovation,” Dr. Forrest said... Manufacturing workers in Michigan, he says, earn $14,000 a year more than the rest of the nation. Meanwhile, knowledge workers make about $7,000 less. “That’s the bottom line.”
(Rapid Growth Media, September 20, 2007)
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MARY SUE COLEMAN WELCOMES SPANISH AEROSPACE COMPANY TO STATE

Students in our aerospace engineering program like to wear a T-shirt that says, “As a matter of fact, I am a rocket scientist.” But you don’t need an engineering degree to appreciate the power of Michigan’s research universities to propel our state’s economy. Attracting companies like Aernnova specifically demonstrates how the University Research Corridor can — and does — make our state a leader in attracting and supporting innovative and entrepreneurial firms. We’re seeing it with Michigan State and its work to bring together the Swedish firm Chemrec and the Upper Peninsula’s New Page Corporation to establish a biofuel plant in Escanaba. We’re seeing it with Wayne State and the spectacular rebirth of a Detroit neighborhood through its entrepreneurial TechTown initiative. And we’re seeing it with the University of Michigan and the location in Ann Arbor of high-tech firms like Google, Barracuda Networks, and today, Aernnova.
(U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, at the announcement that Spanish aerospace company Aernnova is establishing an engineering center close to U-M, creating up to 600 direct jobs in Michigan.)

UNIVERSITIES: MICHIGAN’S RESEARCH CORRIDOR MUST BE USED TO DEVELOP NEW INDUSTRIES

Michigan’s three research universities are worth a strong investment from the state if they continue to create new economic activity that leads to new jobs. Indeed, the university presidents might say, “Bring it on.” Last spring the presidents of Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University made the rounds urging leaders and lawmakers to recognize their status as a “research corridor” and the economic catalyst they can and do provide. Earlier this month, the three research universities released a study they commissioned on their economic impact on the state. It’s not small. The Anderson Economic Group’s four-month review found that the schools combine to create nearly 69,000 Michigan jobs and produced nearly $13 billion in net economic benefit in 2006.... It’s a compelling argument, particularly when they start comparing the impact of MSU, U-M and WSU with other nationally acclaimed university research centers such as the Research Triangle in North Carolina or Boston’s 128 Corridor, which includes Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yes, our Michigan schools are in the same league.... In their 11th hour budget frenzy, lawmakers must not lose sight of this opportunity.
(Lansing State Journal editorial, September 18, 2007)

A DIFFERENT STANDARD: RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES OFFER MORE, DESERVE MORE IN RETURN

With state lawmakers set to decide on funding for public universities for fiscal year 2008, the state’s University Research Corridor — composed of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan State University and Wayne State University — released a report this week that highlights those three institutions’ immense contributions to the state.... This data is hard evidence of the fact that research universities deserve more funding because they help the state in ways the other 12 public universities do not. All public institutions in the state are essential to the recovery of the local economy and will eventually supply well-educated citizens.... The resources and jobs brought to the table by the major research institutions cannot be ignored, especially with a lack of income being raised for the state through other outlets. While total revenue for the MRC has gone up since 2002, state funding has fallen 13 percent...

Despite the state’s budget crunch, it is important for state lawmakers to remember that they cannot ignore the funding needs of state universities, including the special needs of the URC. If they’re still in doubt, they can just look at the numbers.
(The Michigan Daily, September 12, 2007)
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UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CORRIDOR REPORT

A glimpse of light in Michigan’s otherwise dark economic picture. The state’s three research universities, which make up the University Research Corridor, released a report Monday that says their work last year helped create nearly 70-thousand jobs with close to 13-billion dollars of net economic benefit.
(WWJ, September 10, 2007)

CAMPUS FACE-LIFT: OVER 10 YEARS, WSU PRESIDENT HAS MADE A MARK

As Reid celebrates his 10th year as Wayne State’s president this week, there’s little doubt that he’s left his mark, redefining the university as a powerful economic engine for Detroit, creating residential life on campus and elevating the university’s national profile....Reid has built a research development park, TechTown, and partnered with private developers to create South University Village, which will include the first major market-rate apartment complex in the city in about 30 years, according to Wayne State. He pioneered the construction of three dorms on the commuter campus, invigorated the neighboring community and led the university’s first major fundraising effort.
(Marisa Schultz, The Detroit News, September 7, 2007)
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WAGE GAP IN MICHIGAN EXPANDING, STUDY SAYS

The pay gap between Michigan workers with college degrees and those without them is widening dramatically, according to a report released today...According to the study, workers holding at least a bachelor’s degree earned about $11 an hour in 1984, compared with $7 an hour for those without degrees. ... In 2005, the study found, workers holding at least a bachelor’s degree had a median wage of $24 an hour. That compared with about $12 an hour for a high school graduate and less than $10 an hour for a dropout.
(Lansing State Journal, September 3, 2007)

KALAMAZOO FIRM FINDS SUCCESS IN INNOVATION

In a state battling a high-cost, Rust Belt reputation, this medical-device maker is quietly bucking all the stereotypes.Consider this: Stryker’s stock price has soared nearly 600% during the last decade. Its market value exceeds that of both General Motors Corp. or Ford Motor Co. And over the next five years, it plans to hire 15,000 workers, doubling its global workforce. Most of the company’s workforce is outside of Michigan. At a time when many startup health care companies in Michigan are trying to get off the ground, Stryker’s success shows it is possible to grow a medical technology leader in a region known mostly for industrial manufacturing. “It’s a terrific example of the kind of constant innovation we need,” said Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future Inc., an Ann Arbor think tank focused on the state’s economy. “They are one of the great Michigan corporate success stories.” The Kalamazoo-based company, founded 66 years ago in the city by orthopedic surgeon and University of Michigan grad Homer Stryker, is rapidly emerging as one of the premier innovators of medical devices of all kinds, from artificial knees and hips to hospital beds and the tools used in major surgeries.
(Detroit Free Press, August 12, 2007)
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SCHOOL CUTS ARE A TAX ON COLLEGE STUDENTS

From 2001 to 2006, Michigan cut spending on higher education by more than any other state in the country, according to a study by Illinois State University. If that wasn’t bad enough, it found that during the last five years Michigan led the nation in reducing support for colleges and universities. We cut support to the engine that creates our future by around 13 percent. Nationally, the rest of the states increased higher education funding, on average by 15 percent over the same period... According to the Senate Fiscal Agency, Michigan spends $1.9 billion on a prison system with 51,000 inmates and employs nearly 18,000 full time employees. This is now slightly less than the amount the state spends on public universities. And the Department of Corrections budget keeps going up, while higher education gets cut just as regularly. It costs the state more than $30,000 a year to warehouse one felon, while state support for one college student is a mere $6,000. Is this a sensible choice?
(Phil Power, Hometown Newspapers, August 2, 2007)
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HIGHER ED SPENDING SHOULD PUSH REFORM

TRAVERSE CITY — Legislators could see new recommendations on the higher education budgets when Governor Jennifer Granholm returns from the National Governor’s Association Annual Meeting here. Consultants speaking to governors urged them to use funding to incentivize universities to help meet state economic development goals and said none of the states are effectively doing that. States have been asking their colleges and universities to become bigger players in improving state economies, but they have maintained funding formulas that encourage the status quo, consultants told governors Sunday. For higher education institutions to be encouraged to change course, states have to structure the funding to incent those changes. And they have to know exactly what it is they want and need from universities, the governors were told... Because neither chamber has yet passed a higher education budget for fiscal year 2007-08, Ms. Granholm said there was still time to look at what other incentives might be worked into that spending plan.
(Gongwer News Service, July 22, 2007)

BUSINESS LEADERS TO N.G.A.: UNIVERSITIES KEY TO NEW ECONOMY

TRAVERSE CITY — Although Michigan hasn’t historically had an entrepreneurial economy, its state universities — their ability to market a niche for themselves and turn out new innovations — mean the state has great potential of turning its economy around, business professionals said Sunday at the National Governors Association Economic Development and Commerce Committee, which Governor Jennifer Granholm vice chaired.... Ms. Granholm said that she thought the idea to focus higher education funding on those that turn out the most intellectual property is worth pursuing because “development of ideas creates jobs.”.... With all of the challenges that exist, he said, Michigan can be proud, as the University of Michigan holds the third place ranking, behind M.I.T. and Stanford, for getting ideas to the market place, as measured by royalties. Rey More, chief quality officer for Motorola, Inc., said that if states could replicate the kind of synergy that exists at universities such as U of M and North Carolina, at their Center for Entreprenueralism, universities would be one of the top assets in the marketplace.Another successful strategy for universities, said Robert Heard, managing director of Cimarron Capital Partners, an investment firm, is to brand a region by what the universities do best. In Michigan, Ms. Granholm said, that means alternative energy research, as evidenced by Michigan State University and other educational leaders in the field.
(Gongwer News Service, July 22, 2007)

CEOs TO GOVERNORS: PROMOTE SCHOOLS, SPREAD INTERNET ACCESS

TRAVERSE CITY — States that educate children the best and provide broadband Internet service and other technology to the most people will do best in the competitive global economy, two of the nation’s top communication executives told the nation’s governors Saturday... (Google CEO Eric) Schmidt told reporters he’s pleased with Google’s new operation in Ann Arbor... “The energy level is phenomenal,” he said, adding that... it’s the fastest-growing center in Google. Schmidt said Michigan has much going for it because of its skilled workforce.
(Detroit Free Press, July 22, 2007)
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STATE IN RACE FOR FIRST COMMERICAL ETHANOL PLANT TO USE WOOD

A Boston-based company has chosen Michigan to have one of the nation’s first commercial ethanol plant to use wood and other cellulose material instead of corn, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced today. Jamerson said he was convinced to build the plant in Michigan because of the state’s availability of wood, its universities and a $50-million federal grant to Michigan State University to develop methods to produce ethanol from grass.
(Detroit Free Press, July 19, 2007)

Michigan must revamp higher education policy

Like Michigan’s old business tax, higher education policy is still largely a reflection of the state’s industrial era. And like the business tax, the state’s overall approach to higher education needs to be revamped. The Big Three university leaders have at least started a dialogue by calling for a separate state appropriations bill for their colleges, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University. Naturally, these institutions are looking out for their best interests and for good reason. But they make an excellent point that top-rank research schools can be economic drivers...Michigan needs the Big Three schools to thrive — and vice versa. Developing a stronger Michigan-Big Three partnership to boost college access and economic development should be a key part of the needed overhaul of the state’s higher education policy.
(Detroit News editorial, July 16, 2007)

INVESTING IN MICHIGAN

“Michigan is well known for both its innovation and bright people. What we don’t have is capital,” Bund explains. “MGCS helps bring in the capital by attracting so many investors in one place.” It’s this concentration of capital that can launch the next Esperion. A true Michigan success story, Esperion Therapeutics presented at the 1998 symposium and was eventually bought out by Pfizer for $1.3 billion in February 2004...Of course, much of this would be impossible without the talent and research produced by Michigan’s Big Three universities.
(Scott Paul Dunham, metromode, July 12, 2007)
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DETROIT FREE PRESS: END THE SQUEEZE ON HIGHER EDUCATION

There is little sign of interest among legislators in treating higher education as the asset it is. In the current budget squeeze, support for higher education is always among the first things to be delayed or slashed at crisis time. This is despite universal acknowledgement that Michigan needs a better educated workforce and the demonstrable benefits of research that attracts $1.3 billion from the federal government to the three largest schools, the University of Michigan, Wayne State and Michigan State. On average, states have boosted their support for public colleges and universities by 15% over the past five years while Michigan has cut its payments in each of the past six.
(Detroit Free Press, In Our Opinion, June 29, 2007)
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REWARDING RESEARCH COLLEGES CREATES MORE MICHIGAN JOBS

One simple truth is clear: We cannot follow the status quo and expect different results... We must differentiate the state’s assets for greater leverage and accountability. Michigan’s research-intensive universities have a unique role in fostering the innovation that will fuel new industries and create jobs.
(The URC presidents writing for The Detroit News, June 2, 2007)
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THINK POSITIVELY, U-M EXPERT SAYS: JOBS IN EDUCATION, HEALTH CARE AMONG THE BRIGHT SPOTS

As the report makes clear, there’s no question Michigan’s 20th-Century economic model is fading. The state’s factory jobs shrank 27% between 1997 and 2006, while automotive parts manufacturing slid even more, down nearly 34% during that time. But at the same time, jobs increased in health care, education, professional and technical services, scientific consulting and other fields. Employment in colleges, universities and professional schools rose nearly 72% during the past 10 years. Also positive, Michigan ranks as a top-10 state in several scientific and technical fields, including patents awarded, the percentage of engineers in the workforce and employment in high-tech enterprises. “We have some real, honest, serious assets that would support a knowledge economy,” Ivacko said. “If we choose not to focus on those, we’re just holding ourselves back.”
(Detroit Free Press, June 22, 2007)
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STATE’S INVENTORS HELP BRIGHT DIM OUTLOOK IN MICHIGAN

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ranks Michigan fifth in number of patents issued. Only residents of California, New York, Texas and Massachusetts received more patents than Michigan’s local heroic inventors....The auto companies play a significant role in the state’s inventive edge, but they’re not the only major influence. Dow Chemical generates patents. So do the universities — including Michigan State, Michigan, Wayne State and Michigan Technological in Houghton.
(Laura Berman, The Detroit News, June 12, 2007)
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CRAIN’S DETROIT SURVEY: MICHIGAN NEEDS A NEW ECONOMIC IDENTITY

Michigan needs a new economic identity and is moving away from historic dependence on its industrial and automotive prowess to lure business and investment. But what its new image will be and who will shape it remains a mystery, according to a new survey of 511 Southeast Michigan business owners, officers and managers. The survey, conducted May 14-18 for Crain’s Detroit Business and Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn L.L.P., found uncertainty or “no clear winner” among plans for revitalizing the state economy. But in a field of 30 specific industry choices, just 10 percent chose automotive among the “most important in shaping the future” economy, and the highest vote-getter, “high-tech” industry, garnered just 19 percent of the responses. Most popular for respondents as “top priority” initiatives that could drive economic development were technology and research that would encourage innovation, more venture capital for start-up and developing companies, less government and improving colleges and universities.... Some 63 percent considered it a “top priority” to “develop more high technology research centers,” and another 36 percent considered it moderately or mildly important. Virtually no one considered that area unimportant.
(Crain’s Detroit Business, June 11, 2007)
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A TALE OF 2 MICHIGANS

Jennifer Baird is that rare thing — an optimist about Michigan’s economy. Baird heads Ann Arbor-based Accuri Cytometers. The University of Michigan spin-off firm with 13 employees is testing biomedical instrument technology that it hopes to market to cell researchers around the world.... Yet even as Michigan’s signature industry continues to struggle, there are signs of hope elsewhere in the state. Michigan’s three major research universities — U-M, MSU and Wayne State University — are contributing to the growth of life sciences and other new high-tech industries of the future. U-M alone has been spinning off an average of eight to 10 high-tech firms each year for the past five years, said Ken Nisbet, executive director of U-M’s Tech Transfer office.
(Detroit Free Press, June 10, 2007)
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STATE SHOULD SUPPORT ITS RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES

They cite the Anderson study as evidence that university research can revive Michigan’s flagging economy, creating the high-paying, high-tech jobs the state needs to replace employment losses in the automotive industry. They make a good case. Only a few states have three research universities as strong as Michigan’s. The brain-power contained in the three universities ought to be a powerful magnet for drawing venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to the state. The business community should be working much more closely with the three universities on projects that have the potential to generate economic growth. And their research activities should get the highest claim on university appropriations. The other dozen public universities in Michigan are fighting the funding proposal, saying it will strip them of dollars they need to raise the quality of their campuses. Several of the smaller schools fancy themselves as research universities as well or aspire to become such. But Michigan can’t support 15 research schools. It already has three established, vigorous research centers, and the best investment would be to develop them to their full potential. Knowledge is the capital of the 21st century, and the schools that make up this University Research Corridor give Michigan a rare advantage. The state should seek to make the most impact with its increasingly scarce higher education dollars by investing a greater proportion in the three research schools.
(Detroit News, May 31, 2007)
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MICHIGAN NEEDS TO LOOK SOUTH

Forty years ago Detroit was the engine that drove America. Before the ’67 riots in Detroit, the city and its synonymous industry commanded the vast majority of the U.S. car market, essentially a license to print money. The Carolinas back then were comparatively poor, more agrarian than industrial, more Tobacco Road than the information superhighway. Two generations later, they have Research Triangle Park connecting three major universities and rising personal income. Michigan doesn’t, and despite being home to three prominent state universities, it’s only beginning to leverage their untapped power in the service of economic development — when, that is, the Legislature isn’t whacking their budgets...The business-and-political establishment of the Carolinas is doing what their counterparts in Michigan and here on Mackinac Island are only beginning to comprehend amid a gloomy fiscal outlook: Leveraging the power of higher education drives economic growth, attracts foreign and domestic investment and improves the caliber of would-be employees.
(Daniel Howes Detroit News, May 31, 2007)
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MICHIGAN’S RESEARCH CORRIDOR RIVALS OTHERS

The report comes as the state’s 15 public universities are facing budget cuts and delays in state aid that total $166 million for the 2006-07 fiscal year. And they’re worried about what the state appropriations might be for the next budget cycle. “There have been other states faced with revenue shortfalls in the past, and they chose to invest despite those difficulties,” Reid said.
(Detroit Free Press, June 1, 2007)
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UNIVERSITIES SCORE WELL ON RESEARCH, THEY CARRY AS MUCH ECONOMIC PUNCH AS MORE NOTED AREAS IN NATION

Michigan’s three research universities pack as much economic power as better-known hot spots around the country, such as North Carolina’s Research Triangle, a study released today concludes....MSU President Lou Anna Simon said Wednesday in a phone call from Mackinac Island, where the conference is under way, that the state’s public universities are taken for granted. “If we were a business, people (Michigan’s competitors) would be trying to move us out of state,” she said.
(The Ann Arbor News, May 31, 2007)
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REPORT SHOWS MICHIGAN’S RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES REALLY ARE WORLD-CLASS

A report released by the three universities that make up the University Research Corridor shows the alliance brings together “knowledge economy” resources comparable to those of some of the nation’s most tech-savvy regions.
(The Great Lakes IT Report, June 1, 2007)
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MI COLLEGE ALLIANCE GREAT FOR ECONOMY

When it comes to sports, Michigan’s top universities are arch enemies, but for research purposes, they are all on the same team. A new report finds that team has the power to produce a big win for the state. The cyclotron is one of Michigan State University’s most-prized research projects, and thanks to a six-month-old alliance between MSU, Wayne State and the University of Michigan, resources and research like the cyclotron are shared between the state’s “big three” academic institution.
(WLNS, May 31, 2007)
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UNIVERSITY RESEARCH TOPS OTHER STATES*

Michigan’s three largest universities outperform some of the best-known university research systems in other states, and the universities and state government should use that fact to help attract companies and economic development, university officials said as they released a report on the issue Thursday... Ms. Coleman said this could be a major development tool for Michigan. “Everyone knows what the branding of the ‘Research Triangle’ has done in North Carolina,” she said, including boosting the fortunes of all other universities in the Tarheel state. Michigan has to brand its own research area to help build development here, she said... Matt Cullen of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation said the research was “tremendously impressive” and that the MEDC was looking forward to using it in its business recruitment efforts....Asked if he thought the three universities should be separated in the budget, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) said he was not sure if that could happen in the current fiscal year. In effect, some movement towards that was already taking place, he said.
(Gongwer News Service, May 31, 2007)

MICHIGAN RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES PACK ECONOMIC PUNCH

The state’s three largest research universities spent more on research and development in 2005 than Harvard, MIT and Tufts University combined. The three schools received more patents between 2002 and 2006 than the universities that make up North Carolina’s Research Triangle.
(Lansing State Journal, May 31, 2007)
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UNIVERSITIES IN SHAPE TO DRIVE ECONOMIC GROWTH

By working to increase business partnerships — and making their resources more visible to the rest of the world — the presidents say they hope to be part of attracting business to Michigan and reinvigorating its economy.
(WWJ, May 31, 2007)
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RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES’ ANNUAL SPENDING TOTALS $6.5B, STUDY SAYS

The University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University, which are in a six-month-old alliance to promote a Michigan research triangle, spend a combined $6.5 billion a year on operations or 2 percent of the state’s economic activity... Other highlights: More than 617,957 UM, Wayne and MSU alumni living in Michigan earned $24.3 billion in 2006. Also, the universities employed 46,398 full-time faculty and staff in fiscal year 2006.Wayne State President Irvin Reid said the reasons for collecting the data include benchmarking performance, providing a report card and increasing visibility. “We want to tell the world Michigan is open for business,” UM President Mary Sue Coleman said.
(Crain’s Detroit Business, June 4, 2007)
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MICHIGAN’S GOVERNOR AND LAWMAKERS PLAN TO WITHHOLD MONEY FORM THE VERY INSTITUTIONS THEY HOPE WILL KICK-START ITS ECONOMY

Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm, a Democrat, and many lawmakers publicly acknowledge that the way out of this budget hole is to use higher education to transform the state’s Rust Belt economy to one more dependent on knowledge-based industries, such as nursing and biotechnology. But paying for that transformation is proving harder than first thought... Since 2001, state spending on higher education in Michigan has dropped by more than $150-million, or 7 percent. By comparison, during the same period, higher-education appropriations nationwide have risen, on average, 19 percent since 2001. Just this fiscal year, state appropriations for higher education across the country rose 7 percent, while Michigan saw only a 3-percent increase that is now threatened by the delayed payment.
(The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 8, 2007)

FUND EDUCATION — OR DIE: OUR ONLY HOPE IS TO ATTRACT NEW HIGH-TECH, NEW ECONOMY JOBS TO MICHIGAN.

Our only hope, really, is to attract new high-tech, new-economy jobs. The odds are heavy that we will never again be able to depend on a single product or industry, which could be a damn good thing if we ever get our economy together. But how do we do that? We have a few things going for us. One