Cambridge-MIT Partnership Launched

A ground-breaking partnership was announced between the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Monday, 8 November.

President Charles Vest, Chancellor Gordon Brown and Vice-Chancellor Sir Alec Broers at the announcement.

The foundation of the new Cambridge-MIT Institute was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP at a press conference. He described it as "a path breaking innovation".

The new Institute will undertake research and education to improve UK productivity and competitiveness; develop research programmes to improve technology; stimulate research spin-offs out of academe; bring MIT's business executive programmes to the UK; and will develop common courses in science, technology, engineering and management for students.

The Institute will receive 84 million pounds of funding, of which 68 million pounds comes from the Department of Trade and Industry with a further 16 million pounds to be raised from private industry.

The announcement has been warmly welcomed by a wide range of decision-makers from government, industry and academe.

Cambridge Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Alec Broers, and MIT President Charles Vest, both spoke with great enthusiasm of their hopes for the new enterprise. The Vice-Chancellor said, "We are committed in Cambridge to seeking partnerships with world leaders to ensure that we remain in the top rank of the world's universities and this partnership provides a great step forward. It will allow us greatly to advance our aims."

Charles Vest welcomed the proposal as, "Tremendously exciting. We believe that the synergies of Cambridge and MIT will present unparalleled opportunities for education and research and will serve to establish bold new university-industry linkages and create new cultures of entrepreneurism."

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