Representatives from UNM, Sandia National Laboratories and the City of Albuquerque gathered June 19 to sign a Memorandum of Understanding allowing the three institutions to collaborate on research.
Mayor Martin Chavez, University President David Schmidly and SNL president Tom Hunter met in Zimmerman Library to sign the "Community Research Collaborative," an agreement aimed at research areas such as energy infrastructure and efficiency, cyber security and digital film media.
"This initiative will enable us to join forces in complex areas of research that may ultimately result in economic development opportunities for our community and state," Schmidly said in his June 22 Monday-morning message.
Sustainability and Internet research are common areas of interest between the three parties, which should make the collaboration beneficial, Chavez said at the meeting.
Schmidly said UNM's position as a research university will play a crucial role in the collaboration.
"Our researchers received almost $300 million in research funding last year and we have a lot of cutting-edge expertise on this campus that we can bring to bear on the community of Albuquerque," he said at the meeting.
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Each of three parties involved selected a representative to begin identifying possible areas of research. The City of Albuquerque chose Ted Shogry, SNL chose Michael Dewitt, and UNM will be represented by Connie Beimer, UNM's special assistant for strategic research.
Beimer said the Memorandum of Understanding provides for several months of collaboration between the city, the labs and UNM.
"Basically, the MOU is an opportunity for the three organizations to look for ways to improve the quality of life in Albuquerque," she said. "The MOU sets the parameters for the three organizations to work together, and over the next three months, we're going to look over things that we can collaborate and work together on."
Beimer said the agreement will specifically help improve sustainable practices in Albuquerque.
"It gives each of us a chance to give some expertise to the table, and we're hoping by doing that we can increase and improve ouenergy efficiency programs by sharing those ideas," she said.
At the meeting, Hunter said that the agreement developed in Albuquerque should be used as a model for future collaborative agreements.
"In partnerships, we will bring together in whatever way we can the opportunity to work with industrial entities, with governmental entities and with American universities," he said. "So what can be better than doing that? Doing that right here at home as a model for how it should be done."
Chavez said the agreement allows the City of Albuquerque to be at the forefront of the resulting research.
"The City of Albuquerque's role will be to be the laboratory where some of the research can be applied," he said.
Beimer said since the three organizations would be collaborating on existing research, the projects will cost less money.
"We're hopeful that, at least initially, it won't cost us money," she said. "We're helping each other with existing resources. If there are some opportunities that we want to initiate then we'll work on gaining funding through grants."
