An important part of New York's past, current and future economic growth is regionally based economic development driven by higher education. Nothing demonstrates this more than the successful coalition between the University at Albany and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.
UAlbany and CNSE are proud to embark on a bold new partnership that will chart a different course for our institutions, allowing us to enhance our shared mission of education, innovation, entrepreneurship and service to our students and the public.
Investments by UAlbany and the state of New York have helped catapult CNSE to its position as an internationally renowned nanotechnology research complex where critical work is under way to develop and commercialize the nanotechnology innovations of the future.
We now have an opportunity to take our success to the next level. In order for CNSE to continue to be one of the region's driving economic forces, it needs greater independence.
This means a new relationship and strategic partnership between these two enterprises. This will mean more of the nation's best students and faculty living, studying and working in our communities and more alliances with leading global companies. Ultimately, it will mean more high-tech jobs for New Yorkers.
But this is not just about CNSE. It is as importantly about advancing a new era of innovation and educational excellence for the University at Albany.
As the pioneering research University that spawned CNSE, UAlbany is poised and now will be enabled to exploit new academic and research opportunities across the arts and sciences and to develop new cutting-edge advancements in such burgeoning areas as atmospheric sciences, biomedical sciences, health and allied sciences, information technology, computer and network engineering, advance data analytics, forensic science and other disciplines.
This, too, will mean more students, faculty and engaged alumni, as well as new educational and learning opportunities, more scholarship, creative expression and discovery, greater community engagement and new opportunities for commercialization and job creation — all hallmarks of a great public research university.
Couple this win-win with Gov. Andrew Cuomo's START-UP NY and NYSUNY 2020 programs, and New York has a formula for sustained economic success.
Incubating the growth of CNSE will forever be one of UAlbany's great achievements. Clearly, CNSE has matured and earned this distinction within SUNY and among its national and international peers. UAlbany, meanwhile, is poised to advance to the next level of excellence.
As two independent but strategically and geographically connected research entities, UAlbany and CNSE will partner to form an array of groundbreaking symbiotic relationships in the areas of research, academics, and support services to the benefit of our students, the region and the state of New York.
The action this week by the SUNY Board of Trustees is not the end of the process; it is the beginning.
We look forward to working under the leadership of Chancellor Nancy Zimpher to execute this bold new vision within an all-encompassing and transparent partnership that engages our students, faculty, staff, alumni and supporters, as well as our elected leaders and the community at large.