Cornell's New York City footprint may soon grow much larger with the addition of a new applied sciences research center and campus. The campus will be charged with enhancing the commercialization of research and technologies developed at Cornell that will benefit NYC economic development. Answering a call for expressions of interest from the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the university's is one of 18 preliminary proposals from 27 academic institutions and companies planning to respond to a Request For Proposals for the project to be released by Mayor Michael Bloomberg this summer.

"New York City attracts the best and Cornell University is eager to go up against the best," said President David Skorton.

"We welcome the mayor's vision, and we think that this broad and open approach is the best way to identify the most successful potential academic partnership to secure the city's tech future," Skorton said. "We firmly believe that Cornell's combination of academic excellence in engineering and computing sciences, leadership position in the technology industry, and strong existing presence in the city make us an ideal candidate, and that the competitive process will lead to a better outcome for New Yorkers."

The university's presence in New York City is already strong, with over 50,000 alumni, approximately 5,000 employees, a world-class medical facility and many college programs, making it the natural partner for New York City.

This universitywide initiative is being led by President Skorton, Provost W. Kent Fuchs, Dean of the College of Engineering Lance Collins and Dean of Computer and Information Science Dan Huttenlocher.

Follow our progress at http://www.nyc.cornell.edu/.