Reporter 10/11/99: Collaboration between the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Notice

Collaboration between the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Notice

8 November 1999

The Vice-Chancellor wishes to inform members of the University that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon. Gordon Brown, has to-day announced substantial Government funding for collaboration between the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The collaboration has been developed over the last eleven months in a series of discussions with MIT and the Treasury (HMT), involving the Vice-Chancellor, other senior officers, and senior academic staff in the subject areas directly concerned.

The University of Cambridge and MIT will create the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) which will support academic collaboration in four broad areas: undergraduate education; a programme of integrated research; professional practice programmes in innovation and entrepreneurship; and the creation of a National Competitiveness Network of the Enterprise Centres recently announced by the Government.

Undergraduate education

The University of Cambridge and MIT will initiate a series of common courses (typically to be taken by third-year students who will spend their entire third year at the host university) taught simultaneously at both locations as part of the degree programmes of the two universities. These will focus on engineering, science, technology, and management, including innovative interdisciplinary programmes, and will use distance learning technologies and web-based instructional materials.

Integrated research

Research will focus largely on fields that have potential to influence substantially the future evolution of technology. Potential areas of collaboration include physics, biology, neuroscience, information technology, financial engineering, nanotechnology, bioengineering, microfabrication, and materials science. In addition, CMI will support faculty exchanges through a programme of Cambridge-MIT Fellows. These Fellows will be faculty members from each institution, committed to working across the partnership.

Professional practice programmes in innovation and entrepreneurship

Through CMI, the University of Cambridge and MIT will develop and extend their existing programmes of education for business, in such areas as logistics, product development, manufacturing, and the management of technology. In addition, MIT and the University of Cambridge will identify other opportunities for trans-Atlantic collaboration on graduate education in fields beyond management and engineering.

A National Competitiveness Network

CMI will establish a national knowledge network with linkages to the Enterprise Centres and to industry. It will deploy educational and research results produced by CMI and other universities, will co-ordinate the develop-ment of joint research projects to be undertaken by participating universities, and will convene an annual business-government-university summit focusing on the competitiveness and productivity of UK industry. It is proposed that a Steering Group be established, comprising two representatives of each of the University of Cambridge, MIT, and the Enterprise Centres. This Group will report twice a year to HMT and the Department of Trade and Industry on the transfer of experience and practice by CMI to the Enterprise Centres and on the creation of the National Competitiveness Network.

The Government is willing to commit up to £68m to CMI over five years against contracts for specific programmes of activity. The private sector in the UK will contribute a further £16m.

The Council and the General Board have been kept informed of the progress of the discussions and have endorsed the proposed collaboration in principle. The Council and the Board will publish a Joint Report later in the current academical year, containing detailed proposals necessary to establish CMI and to effect the academic collaboration.

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