UI’s Discovery Partners Institute earns state approval — for the next 5 years, at least

CHICAGO — After nearly two years of planning, the Discovery Partners Institute has cleared its final state regulatory hurdle and can launch operations in earnest, at least temporarily.

The staff of the Illinois Board of Higher Education this week granted approval for the University of Illinois system to operate the new Chicago-based research and innovation center for the next five years.

A full board vote isn’t required, but in five years, board authorization will be required for DPI to operate on a permanent basis.

UI officials received the approval letter Wednesday from Stephanie Bernoteit, the state board's deputy director for academic affairs.

The decision means the university can create a governing committee and start the process of appointing DPI faculty fellows from the UI’s three campuses.

While DPI is already operating out of temporary space in downtown Chicago, offering classes and ramping up its staff, the state board’s decision is a “big step,” UI President Tim Killeen said Thursday.

“Now it’s an institute. It exists,” he said. “It’s got a space; it’s got leadership; it’s got faculty interest. We’ve got working groups; we’ve got partners; we can populate it, so people can put on their resume, ‘I am also a member of the DPI.’”

DPI is designed to bring together students and faculty from the UI and other universities to tackle big societal challenges and promote innovation and entrepreneurship, working with partners in industry, government and other sectors.

The goal is to serve 2,000 students by 2024, according to the proposal approved by the state board.

The UI system is “committed to providing funds for DPI’s administrative and operating costs until longer-term funding models are established” through endowments from philanthropic contributions, industry partners and others, according to the state board's letter. DPI will also seek federal grants to cover some costs.

The five-year approval will allow DPI time to build a sustainable endowment, the proposal says.

DPI’s leaders will evaluate its effectiveness over the next five years through metrics such as the number of active partnerships, patent applications, research projects, students and faculty involved, external funding and awards received, the letter said.

Meanwhile, an architectural firm is creating preliminary designs for a new DPI facility in downtown Chicago and other buildings planned across the state as part of the Illinois Innovation Network, Killeen said. That includes a new Data Sciences Center at Urbana that will replace Illini Hall, which Killeen called “a very high priority for us.”

The state has committed $500 million toward the construction of DPI and other facilities on the statewide network, but none of that money has been released. Gov. J.B. Pritzker made it contingent on matching funds from the private sector.

The UI says it has secured about $400 million in “non-state dollars” toward that goal, though that includes about $230 million in university discretionary funds — typically made up of private gifts, endowment income and overhead from research grants but also student fees and tuition.

“We’re working toward the match,” Killeen said. “We’re very close to that magic number.”

During a visit to campus in July, Pritzker said the state funds should be “forthcoming” but didn’t provide a timeline. Killeen said to expect more announcements in early fall.

UI officials have said about half of the state’s $500 million would go toward the DPI facility in Chicago, and the rest would be used primarily on the three UI campuses in Urbana, Chicago and Springfield.

“We’re working intensively with the governor’s office about the next steps on the capital side,” Killeen said. “The order in which the state funds will be released probably is going to be important in assessing exactly which hole gets dug where, and what time frame.”

The UI has also hired a consultant to refine DPI’s business plan and its potential economic impact. Those will be made public next month, Killeen said.

The business plan will cover DPI’s staffing, operations and relationships with businesses and other outside partners, he said.

Killeen said DPI’s other U.S. and international academic partners will provide “in kind” support.

The UI president told faculty leaders Thursday that two new universities in the United Kingdom want to sign on as partners, but that announcement is on hold.

“There’s this little thing called Brexit happening — or not happening,” said Killeen, a native of Wales.

At Thursday’s meeting of the University Senates Conference, Wilson thanked faculty leaders for helping vet the DPI proposal as it worked its way through the university approval process.

After months of discussions, the Senates Conference, as well as the Urbana and Springfield campus senates, gave temporary five-year approval to the DPI initiative this spring — but only after winning guarantees that its courses, faculty nominations and other academic matters would be under the control of the campuses.

As described, DPI will be governed as an institute, not an academic college or department, and will not hire its own faculty or establish new courses, degrees or academic programs.

The Chicago campus senate declined to endorse DPI in March, citing questions about how faculty royalties and intellectual property will be handled and about DPI’s costs and funding, among other issues.