Davis offers $33 million for CITRIS

17 January 2001 | Gov. Gray Davis has proposed $33 million for the first of three payments in initial funding for Berkeley's proposed Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society.

If funded by the Legislature, CITRIS would become the fourth California Institute for Science and Innovation. Three other institutes were funded in December at various UC campuses after competitive competitions. Among those was QB3, a joint Berkeley/UC San Francisco/UC Santa Cruz project.

CITRIS, to be based largely at Berkeley - with UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz and UC Merced as partners - will bring the power of information to bear on such societal needs as transportation, education, emergency preparedness and health care. The center will be a model partnership between state and industry to address these issues.

"Gov. Davis' vision and his strong support has galvanized our determination to launch CITRIS and turn our best technology toward solving the issues that all Californians should be concerned about - transportation, energy, education, seismic safety, and many more," said Richard Newton, dean of the College of Engineering. "This backing is critical to the completion of a dynamic university-industry-government partnership that has excited faculty on four campuses, including our new Merced campus, and can really push our progress on these big issues facing California's future.

"Not only will CITRIS technology work for Californians, but it will also serve as a model for information-technology solutions to tough quality-of-life problems throughout the world."

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