Repository: UIHistories Project: Map of UIUC (2001) (Economic Development) [PAGE 3]

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A Vision for Campus Development

The University of Illinois is poised to broaden and deepen its service to the State by expanding significantly the effort, energy and resources it devotes to economic development for the entire State. The faculty, staff and students of the University have long been one of the State’s major assets, through the conduct of world-class teaching, research, and public service programs. Already a vital economic development engine, the University has committed to adding a fourth dimension to those multiple traditional missions: expediting the transfer of U of I research results to the marketplace, creating new economic enterprises to benefit all who live and work in Illinois. Technology is at the heart of today’s – and tomorrow’s – economy. The U of I has enormous strengths in agriculture, biotechnology, and information technology – areas in which Illinois has developed a competitive advantage among other states and areas in which that advantage can be strengthened with prudent additional investments. The University will begin by investing its own resources to improve its service to the State. The availability of several hundred acres of land for new development at the southern part of the UrbanaChampaign campus coincides perfectly with new expectations that the University can and should increase its contributions to the State’s economic base. Opportunities exist to expand the role that education, research and development in agriculture at UIUC can play in strengthening the Illinois economy. Many new ventures in biotechnology are directly related to agriculture, in both plant and animal technology. Playing a prominent role in Illinois’ agriculture-related economic development is among the most fundamental elements of the University’s historic mission as a land-grant institution, and the time is right to reinvigorate that component of the University’s multiple missions. The Board of Trustees has endorsed a new focus on economic development and has acted decisively to put new administrative structures and processes in place to streamline and accelerate the transfer of research-based technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. The University has identified one essential resource – land – for expanding both its agricultural and broader technology transfer activities. Whatever agriculture-related results emerge from U of I laboratories, new test plots will be needed to demonstrate the potential commercial applications of those results. Additional resources are required – new land must be acquired, new facilities constructed. The University will seek new resources for those purposes from the State, but will also secure significant non-state resources to leverage the investment of new State support in this exciting endeavor to strengthen its contributions to the Illinois economy. At the same time, the State expects the University to make research and development results in all areas more effectively and efficiently available to commercial development. New initiatives are needed to improve operational processes and enhance physical facilities that foster the transition of research from the laboratory to the commercial marketplace. The opportunity to take land currently assigned for agriculture and shift its use to the needs of technology transfer is extremely timely and fortuitous. But realizing that opportunity depends directly on the University’s ability to secure new land and facilities for agricultural research and development.

Infrastructure for Economic Development | page 1