The University of Virginia has released new details about the Rolls-Royce deal and, despite my misgivings over the $56.8 million in state contributions to the project (see “Questions about the Rolls Royce Deal“), I have to concede that Virginia is putting some of the money where it belongs — increasing the state’s capacity for knowledge creation rather than into Rolls-Royce’s pockets.
According to an article in the University of Virginia Magazine’s e-newsletter, a partnership encompassing U.Va, Virginia Tech and the Virginia Community College System will create two new research centers: The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing, adjacent to the Rolls-Royce facility in Prince George County, and the Center for Aerospace Propulsion Systems to be headquartered at U.Va.
The Commonwealth will support the Virginia universities in these endeavors over five years with the following:
- Funding for nine chaired professorships — three in engineering at U.Va., three in U.Va.’s McIntire School of Commerce and three at Virginia Tech
- Endowment of graduate fellowships to support the work of U.Va. and Tech graduate students at the Advanced Manufacturing Center and on the home campuses
- Endowment of internships to support undergraduate students working with Rolls-Royce in Virginia and around the world
- Renovation of mechanical engineering laboratories at U.Va. and Virginia Tech
- Support for enhancements to the manufacturing programs at U.Va.’s Engineering School, which will allow the introduction of a manufacturing minor
- Assistance to the community colleges to retrain existing Rolls-Royce employees and to train new Rolls-Royce employees
- Matching funds for research support provided by Rolls-Royce. The research will be in areas of interest to Rolls-Royce, including work done within the Center for Aerospace Propulsion Systems.
If the Commonwealth is going to invest public funds in higher education, it might as well steer funds into projects that arise in response to market demand and create stronger industry/workforce/research clusters. Indeed, investments made on behalf of Rolls-Royce may provide the basis for enticing other aerospace businesses to Virginia.
This project takes economic development to a higher level — it’s one of the best examples I’ve seen of Economy 4.0 thinking in practice here in the Commonwealth. Advanced manufacturing and aerospace research are the kinds of high value-added economic activity we want to encourage. I still have reservations about spending so much money on a single project, but this latest news ameliorates my concerns to some degree.
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