Michigan Governor Rick Snyder:  University-business partnerships lead to job creation

PFINTZAL, Germany – Gov. Rick Snyder joined a select audience from Germany and Michigan today to discuss innovative partnerships between businesses and leading universities in a Partnership Forum at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology, Europe’s largest application-oriented research organization.

While at the forum, Snyder celebrated the signing of a Letter of Intent between the University of Michigan and the Fraunhofer Institute to form the Clean Transportation Innovation Cluster, a research program focusing on developing advanced electrical storage systems for the automotive industry and other universities in Michigan.   

“Michigan is one of the top states in the nation for research and development with more than $16 billion in industrial R&D and close to $2 billion in university research, and we’re always working to help our leading universities turn the latest developments into jobs,” Snyder said. 

The CTIC will draw knowledge and resources from many international sources and will perform well-defined projects with industry partners that move energy storage technology to commercialization. Fraunhofer, Michigan State University, University of Michigan and Wayne State University will serve as the initial partners in the CTIC.

Fraunhofer’s most recent partnership with U-M was started in 2009 and was funded through a seed program for Alternative Energy Technologies for Transportation. The success of the AETT partnership led to the formation of the CTIC. 

Fraunhofer USA currently has eight centers focused on sustainable energy, manufacturing innovation, biotechnology, medical devices, software engineering, lasers and coatings. The three Michigan centers include the Headquarter in Plymouth, the Center for Laser Technology and the Center for Coatings & Laser Applications. All three Michigan Fraunhofer centers are partnered with Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University.

Snyder is on the second day of his eight-day Europe investment mission, where he is leading a delegation of state and local officials and economic developers to strengthen relationships and attract new job-creating investments. They arrived in Turin, Italy on Sunday and will spend the rest of the week in Germany meeting with government officials and business executives before returning on Saturday.

Courtesy of MichiganAdvantage.org