The University Research Corridor (URC) is an alliance of Michigan’s three largest academic institutions: Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University. In 2007 the URC universities asked Anderson Economic Group to undertake the first comprehensive study that benchmarks the economic impact of the URC’s activities on Michigan’s economy. AEG published the preliminary report  in May and the final report in September of 2007. The 2008 final report was the second in a series of annual reports and was also predated by a preliminary report on Alernative Energy R&D. While many benchmarks will likely not show large changes from year to year, over time these reports will reveal trends.

The new 2009 report was preceded by a preliminary report on the Life Sciences industry in Michigan and benchmarks using the most recent data available. We used fiscal year 2008 (July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008) financial data to estimate the economic impact of the URC’s operations on Michigan’s economy in 2008. In three years, the URC’s economic impact on the state’s economy has grown $1.6 billion. The rankings of tech transfer activities are based on the average of the annual data for the previous five years from the date of the report. For example, the ranking for start-up companies is based on the average number of start-up companies the URC helped start between 2004-2008. A ranking of "1" indicates the university cluster with the highest tech transfer activity for that indicator. The URC performed the best in number of patent grants awarded, ranking third in this year’s report—an improvement of two spots since 2007. 

The URC had 133,469 students enrolled in the fall of 2008. The students at the URC universities are drawn from throughout Michigan and around the world. Students from the state of Michigan accounted for 77% of total enrollment in the fall of 2007, while 15% came from elsewhere in the U.S. and the remaining 8% came from other countries or territories. The URC has students from every county in Michigan, every state, and more than 150 countries. Please click "view PDF" below, for the full report.