LANSING, Mich. (Oct. 10, 2010) – The University Research Corridor (URC) is an alliance of Michigan’s three largest academic institutions: Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University. In 2007 the URC universities asked Anderson Economic Group to undertake the first comprehensive study that benchmarks the economic impact of the URC’s activities on Michigan’s economy. This 2010 report is the fourth in a series of annual reports. While many benchmarks will likely not show large changes from year to year, over time these reports will reveal trends. We present the key findings of our analysis in this section. We also provide an addendum to the report, focused on benchmarking key metrics to other university innovation clusters across the country.

This report presents benchmarks using the most recent data available. We used fiscal year 2009 (July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009) financial data to estimate the economic impact of the URC’s operations on Michigan’s economy in 2009. The rankings of technology transfer activities are based on the average of the annual data for the previous five years from the date of the report. For example, the ranking for start-up companies is based on the average number of companies the URC helped start each year between 2005-2009. A ranking of “1” indicates the university cluster with the highest tech transfer activity for that indicator.

The URC’s economic impact in Michigan was $14.8 billion in 2009. In four years, the URC’s economic impact has grown by $1.9 billion.The URC’s highest ranking tech transfer activity is the number of patent grants awarded, ranking third in this year’s report.