UM announces research pact

AUGUSTA – The University of Maine is forming a partnership with four other Maine-based research institutions, UMaine President Peter Hoff and Gov. Angus King announced Tuesday.

The Cooperative Graduate Studies Program also includes The Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory of Salisbury Cove, the University of Southern Maine, and Maine Medical Research Institute in Scarborough.

Under the agreements, UMaine faculty members and graduate students in biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, computer science and mathematics will collaborate with researchers at the other institutions on projects related to biology and biomedicine.

In return, some researchers at the other four institutions will receive graduate-level adjunct faculty status and will work with UMaine students. It will give employees of the four institutions an opportunity to earn UMaine doctorates in their fields.

Hoff said the agreements will provide more opportunities to conduct cutting-edge research, and compete for a larger pool of federal research funds.

“By sharing and combining resources, Maine will be better able to compete with universities and laboratories elsewhere for research talent, federal funds and jobs,” Hoff said.

The Jackson Laboratory is the world’s largest mammalian genetics research institution. It has doubled in size over the last five years and now has more than 1,000 employees and had a total revenue of $88.1 million last year.

The Maine Medical Center Research Institute carries out both basic and clinical research in molecular medicine with a focus on cardiovascular disease. It is affiliated with Maine Medical Center.

The MDI Biological Laboratory, founded in 1898, is a center for marine research.

It is one of five environmental toxicology research centers in the country funded by the National Institutes of Health. The center focuses on the toxic effects of heavy metals and other environmental contaminants on membrane transport systems.