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Cambridge-MIT Institute: Notice

23 October 2000

The Council and the General Board are pleased to inform the University that the negotiations concerning the establishment of the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) were completed over the summer and that as a consequence the whole of the UK government funding has now been released.

The Proposal Document as approved by the Council and the General Board and submitted to the Office of Science and Technology now constitutes the Corporate Plan and First Year Operating Statement of CMI. Copies of these documents and of the collaboration agreement are available on the CMI Intranet site: http://www.cmi.cam.ac.uk/policy/index.shtml. A Guide to Project Funding is also available from that address.

The Council's authority to conclude the process of establishing CMI derives from Grace 9 of 22 March 2000, which was for the approval of the recommendations in the Joint Report:

I. That the Council be authorized to establish, as jointly owned by the University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Cambridge-MIT Institute and that it be a company, limited by guarantee with the status of an exempt educational charity, for the purpose of implementing the Framework Agreement appended to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's letter to the Vice-Chancellor, dated 4 November 1999.

II. That, subject to the Statutes and Ordinances of the University, the General Board and the Council as may be appropriate be given authority to enter into such contracts, agreements, and arrangements with the Cambridge-MIT Institute as they consider necessary from time to time for the execution of particular programmes within the Framework Agreement.

The Council have been advised that it has not proved possible to establish the Cambridge-MIT Institute as an exempt charity as proposed in Recommendation I. The main reason for this is that MIT is not a UK charity. The Institute is jointly owned by Cambridge and MIT and is therefore not under the majority control of UK charitable trustees as is required by the Charity Commissioners. Experience to date, however, has confirmed that not being an exempt charity does not alter significantly the operation of CMI.

The Council are therefore submitting a Grace to the Regent House to reflect this change (Grace 2, p. 127).


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Cambridge University Reporter, 25 October 2000