Governor to name science and innovation institutes Dec. 7

06 December 00 | Gov. Gray Davis will announce on Dec. 7 the establishment of three California Institutes for Science and Innovation, designed to advance California's scientific and economic prowess.

The institutes, which will be awarded $100 million each in state funds over the next four years, will spark a new generation of technologies that are key to California's competitive economic position. They are also intended to help UC and its industry partners speed the movement of innovation from the laboratory into peoples' daily lives.

This year's state appropriation of $75 million will help fund the three institutes at $25 million each. The state's funding will be matched two-to-one with non-state dollars, bringing the base total funding to at least $900 million.

Berkeley plays a role in three of the six proposed institutes. They are:

• The California Institute for Bioengineering, Biotechnology, and Quantitative Biomedicine. UC San Francisco would be the lead center in this collaboration with Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz to bring together scientists in biomedical research, engineering and physical sciences.

• The California Institute for Agricultural Genomics. UC Riverside would lead this collaboration with the Berkeley and Davis campuses to integrate UC's strengths in agricultural, veterinary and genomic sciences.

• The California Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society. Berkeley would take the lead in this partnership with UC Davis, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz to create information technology solutions that address critical societal issues.

Since the Berkeleyan will not be printing during this time period for winter break, visit www.berkeley.edu/news/ for detailed coverage of the governor's selection. See www.ucop.edu/california-institutes/welcome. html for additional information about the three new institutes.