Establish a research corridor

 26 comment(s)  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

By MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star

It’s aggressive young minds like Colby Thomson’s that get Lincoln leaders drooling.

The Kansas City native and computer science whiz jump-started his own software company while still a junior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

He’s now a 24-year-old CEO rooted firmly in Lincoln despite tempting job offers from hotshots like ConAgra and Mutual of Omaha.

View Slideshow

Crop and plant bioengineering takes place in the crowded plant transformation lab in the Beadle Center. Rik Barrera, Beadle business manager, said, "Our success is our own worst enemy - we've expanded beyond our capacity." (Robert Becker)

Related Media

Map of proposed research park

(Sheila Story / JournalStar.com)...

Comments: 0

Rated:

His company, Allied Strategy, is doing well, he says, up and running after a couple years of struggling to find solid ground. His dozen or so employees have turned down $90,000 salaries in favor of Lincoln’s low cost of living and their Ninth Street office’s proximity to campus and downtown bars and restaurants.

Not only that, but friends from UNL’s J.D. Edwards Honors Program in Computer Science and Management, from which Thomson earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, have started another software company right down the hall.

“We were young guys without a proven track record,” Thomson said. “We’re having a good time now.”

Starting salary for new Allied Strategy employees: $50,000 or more. Apply now.

The city’s academic, business and political leaders want more Colby Thomsons. And they wanted them yesterday.

Attracting — and, more critically, retaining — talented college grads is a key theme of the 2015 Vision group’s ambitious plans for giving Lincoln a makeover.

A hallmark of those plans: A “research park” that would stretch along 19th Street from O Street to State Fair Park and on Vine Street, a sweeping corridor of public and private activity supporters say would help young go-getters like Thomson start their own companies right here in the Capital City.

City leaders envision a campus where professors and students could conduct research in the lab in the morning, then move to spinoff companies housed in nearby “incubators” in the afternoon.

That, they say, would help create jobs, boost Nebraska’s economy and revitalize downtown life.

They’re also hopeful it would boost Nebraska’s retention rate. University figures show just 37 percent of graduates stay in Lincoln; another 14 percent head to Omaha.

“There is no doubt … we are, in fact, suffering a brain drain in the state,” said NU President J.B. Milliken. “It is in my view because there are not enough opportunities in Nebraska for graduates to use their education in their careers.”

Echoed Tom Henning, 2015 Vision member and president/CEO of Assurity Life Insurance Co.:

“We haven’t created enough opportunities for young people. What we need are good, high-paying jobs. We don’t need more jobs created at Wal-Mart or McDonald’s. We need good jobs.”

Establishing a research corridor to accommodate UNL’s booming research programs — they topped $100 million in grant money for the first time last year — is seen as critical to easing UNL’s space crunch and providing post-graduation opportunities for zealous twentysomethings.

But it also involves moving the state fair east to give UNL 251 additional acres of land, a proposal that’s been met with no small amount of opposition.

The price tag for all of this: $70 million to move the fair, $70 million for immediate development of research facilities, tens of millions more for future research growth.

No one’s quite sure exactly who’s going to foot the bill, though a combination of public and private funds is all but certain.

Gov. Dave Heineman won’t support moving the fair if it involves new tax dollars. And the State Fair Board remains unconvinced moving is the best option.

“Of course there’s a whole host of potential barriers,” Henning admitted. “There’s a long list of unknowables.”

But he and university leaders say Lincoln must think big.

Research is the most important tool universities can wield to recruit and retain the best faculty and students, said Prem Paul, UNL vice chancellor of research.

“We’re putting an additional emphasis in this area: How can we take research inventions and, rather than licensing them out to other states, grow those companies in Nebraska?” Paul said. “While they grow, jobs are created and it provides opportunities for our young people to stay in Nebraska.

“That’s a huge area of emphasis.”

In that vein, key items on UNL’s agenda:

n Renovating the Whittier Junior High School building at 22nd and Vine. The building, now in disrepair, could house transportation or energy research labs.

n Adding onto or building next to the Beadle Center, which is now so crowded freezers are stationed in hallways to make room for lab space. UNL needs at least 20,000 more square feet for plant and life sciences research.

n Building a nanotechnology research facility, a promising area of science in which UNL faculty have gained international recognition.

All three projects are expected to move forward this year, said Terry Fairfield, 2015 Vision member and CEO of the NU Foundation, NU’s fundraising arm.

The total bill of $60 million to $70 million will largely be paid by private donors, Fairfield said.

“I’m very optimistic we’re going to make the research corridor a reality,” he said.

Acquiring the fairgrounds is less certain. Supporters will have to convince lawmakers and the public moving the fair from its historic spot to 84th and Havelock is the right thing to do. And they’ve got to come up with a way to pay for it that won’t burden taxpayers.

Still, they seem convinced it’s critical to UNL’s future.

UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman says the campus is “seriously challenged” for space. Fairfield calls the fairgrounds “just ideal.”

And NU President Milliken said, “If there’s other land, I’d sure like to hear about it.”

Added Milliken: “We’ve got to talk to policymakers, to government officials, to business leaders, about the opportunities that are available to us. We’re in a relatively new position with the research growth and we have an opportunity to take advantage of that.”

Paul, for his part, worries for his researchers, who already have been forced not to apply for grants because of lack of space.

Some have halted work because there’s no room for experiments.

A half-dozen hires are on hold because there’s no place to house their labs.

Asked to name a few priority areas of research, Paul rattled off a long list: nanotechnology, transportation, energy, virology, life sciences, engineering, social sciences...

He stopped.

“Just get us the facilities.”

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.