Springfield, Ill (WAND) – The University of Illinois is continuing its pursuit of a major public-private development which will expand its footprint in Chicago.
The project is called the Discovery Partners Institute. The idea is to combine university resources, faculty and students with private companies to collaborate on research and develop new products. The university indicates groundbreaking is sometime off and the project should be fully up and running by 2023. Although some students could start participating as early as next year.
Illinois’ top administrators appeared before a state senate committee on Tuesday. The state has already appropriated $500 million for the project. The money is expected to come from Build Illinois bonds.
But some lawmakers expressed frustration that they can’t get straight answers as to how much private donors and corporations are contributing to the project. The university talked about “potential” contributions of “hundreds of millions of dollars” without any firm numbers being disclosed.
