Michigan research corridor channels 210 companies

Michigan’s University Research Corridor (URC) has developed 210 companies since 2002, with more than a third of them (79) in the past five years, according to the 10^th Annual Economic Impact & Benchmark Report.

URC is an alliance of Michigan State University, Michigan University and Wayne State University.

A total of 22 businesses were produced in 2015, exceeding URC’s five-year average and surpassing annual totals in each of the previous four years. URC also surpassed its five-year average for the number of patents issued, licensing and options activity as well as invention disclosures.  

Roy Wilson, president of Wayne State University, said: “When the R&D happening at the URC is taken out of the lab and into the market it drives a variety of business results, creating new jobs and generating investments in our communities.”

The report said URC contributed $16.5bn to Michigan’s economy, an increase of $3.7bn since 2007, the year the alliance was formed and began benchmarking its impact on the US state. URC was also responsible for $2.15bn in research and development spending in fiscal year 2015, an increase of 53% since 2007.

For the fourth straight year, URC retained its second-place standing in the Innovation Power Ranking, developed by Anderson Economic Group, preparers of the URC Annual Report, among the nation’s most respected innovation clusters.  

The Southern California cluster – consisting of University of California (UC) Los Angeles, UC San Diego and Southern California University – ranked first and the Northern California cluster – made up of UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and Stanford University) ranked third.

Jeff Mason, executive director of URC, said: “This report demonstrates the collective power of the URC universities, which are highly competitive with the most respected clusters in the country and make a significant contribution to our state’s economy.”