UNM President Louis Caldera signed two groundbreaking agreements Thursday with Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California - extending research opportunities for students and approving shared ownership of intellectual property.
"The number of opportunities it will create will be tremendous," Caldera said.
The agreements affect research conducted in the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering.
The University of California, which manages LANL, will fund research projects at UNM for the next five years under the agreement.
"UC has committed to about half a million dollars worth of research here, and the kind of research this involves is the kind of research that can produce intellectual property that can be commercialized and lead to the creation of new businesses and new industries," Caldera said. "It's the virtuous cycle of innovation in which research leads to creating new industries and a higher standard of living. That's part of what we're trying to do at UNM."
Terry Yates, UNM vice provost for research, said the agreements have been in the works for many years.
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"This is the result of many people's efforts to find ways that we can better work together," Yates said. "Los Alamos and UNM have had a long history of collaborative research one-on-one, but we've never had a formal agreement to provide an umbrella and impetus to carry us to the next level of cooperation."
The memorandum of understanding on intellectual property states that any research developed at UNM or UC allows for the government to "retain a nonexclusive, nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up license to practice or have practiced for or on the behalf of the United States such works of authorship and inventions throughout the world."
This includes all intellectual property created by UNM and UC employees, faculty, staff and students, the agreement states.
The memorandum of understanding regarding research and education deals with developing opportunities for research and strengthening academic interactions with LANL.
The goal of the program is to provide undergraduate and graduate students with real world research experience and to attract and retain top-notch scientists at LANL.
Peter Nanos, director of LANL, said the agreements are only the beginning, and the University and LANL can accomplish much more during the next five years.
"We have a broad range of interests in common," Nanos said. "We're interested in pushing the boundaries. A broad science base is the best guarantee for our national security. You never know where the next big idea in science is coming from. I'm hoping we will also see some collaboration in our mainline national security work."
The research and education agreement also provides for an undergraduate student program, a graduate research program and a graduate scholarship program.
"It will provide increased opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to be involved in real world projects that have important national implications," Caldera said. "The real world connection often makes what you're doing more meaningful because you can see its application and you think like a working scientist because you see what you're doing is not an academic exercise, it's a real investigative project."
