"In the same way that electricity powered the old manufacturing economy, the combined know-how of Michigan's major research universities will power the state's successful transition to a knowledge economy and its return to prosperity."

WHAT:
Wayne State University President Jay Noren, accompanied by University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman and Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon, will address members of the Detroit Economic Club on behalf of the University Research Corridor, a voluntary research alliance of Wayne State, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, created to transform Michigan's lagging economy.

WHEN:
Tuesday, February 24, 2008 at noon.

WHERE:
Masonic Temple, 500 Temple Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, 48201.

MORE INFO:
The University Research Corridor is one of the state's four largest employers; it has a collective research budget of more than a billion dollars a year, and more than a half-million graduates living in Michigan including a large majority of the state's science, health care and engineering professionals. Surprisingly, this institutional powerhouse remains a largely untapped economic development resource for the business community in Southeast Michigan.

As new president of Wayne State University, Jay Noren will articulate the URC's common vision "to help create a vigorous Michigan economy that leverages our intellectual capital to attract knowledge-economy businesses, educate a highly skilled, technologically savvy workforce and nurture the revolutionary new industries of tomorrow."

He will explain how the URC acts as an economic stimulus in its own right by virtue of its ability to diversify the economy, propel entrepreneurship and create jobs.

"We have to turn to what sells and what will carry us forward in the knowledge economy - biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, alternative energy, biofuels, health and human services," Noren says.

President Noren will issue a call to action for the business community to embrace the URC as Michigan's most powerful economic development ally.

"The importance of Michigan's research universities to the transformation of our economy is simply fundamental and cannot be denied," he says. "The importance of your role in supporting and working with the URC for the good of all our citizens cannot be overestimated."

Contacts:
Francine Wunder, director of corporate/public affairs, Wayne State University at (313) 577-8155.