As Connecticut fixes its sights on becoming a technology hub, it faces a challenge from a high-profile neighbor with a big bankroll.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday that his city will offer nearly free real estate and up to $100 million in infrastructure upgrades to a university, institution or consortium that commits to creating what Bloomberg says will be a world-class science and engineering campus, to be built on Governors Island, the Brooklyn Navy Yard or Roosevelt Island, The Associated Press reports.
The city’s formal request for proposals was issued Tuesday.
Bloomberg said, he believes that in its first three decades the school could help launch 400 new companies and create more than 22,000 permanent jobs, as well as more than 7,000 construction jobs.
Stanford and Cornell universities and the University of Chicago have expressed interest in the deal, as have schools in Finland, India, Switzerland, Korea, the United Kingdom and Israel. Additionally, some institutions have formed partnerships as they consider the deal. One such group is made up of New York University, Carnegie Mellon, the City University of New York, the University of Toronto and IBM.
The announcement comes just a week after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed his sweeping “Bioscience Connecticut” initiative, that aims to make Connecticut a major player in bioscience and biotechnology by investing $864 million in the renovation of John Dempsey Hospital, the construction of a new patient care tower at the University of Connecticut Health Center, and the expansion of bioscience research and training facilities in Farmington.
At the same time there is a major push in Connecticut to ramp up technology transfer efforts at UConn and other higher education institutions in the state.
