Mote Marine Research Institute at the University of South Florida

[USFan]

The idea still needs funding from the Legislature.

Mote Marine and USF see partnership benefits

By TODD RUGER

todd.ruger@heraldtribune.com

SARASOTA -- The two top ocean research centers on Florida's west coast are hoping to blend into a more powerful institute to boost fundraising, expand research opportunities and gain national prominence.

A new nonprofit group would combine Mote Marine Laboratory's private $10 million research portfolio, 120 research scientists and its well-known name with the University of South Florida's broader resources and academic prestige.

Leaders at Mote and USF have agreed on the basics and a name -- Mote Marine Research Institute at the University of South Florida -- but the idea still needs funding from the Legislature amid a state budget crunch.

While Mote and USF have collaborated on research on issues such as red tide for decades, the agreement for the research institute also joins fundraising and advocacy efforts in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C.

"The idea is to combine our strengths, and it is easier to go sell the government that two major institutions are working together instead of competing," Mote President Kumar Mahadevan said.

"We see the state money coming in as more of an investment in a science-based economy," Mahadevan said.

If created, the Mote and USF institute would be better positioned to win grants for large-scale research and studies that require expertise beyond that at Mote.

"While our experience here is marine biology, we would love to work in chemistry, biochemistry," said Glen Shen, executive vice president for research at Mote. "Immediately we gain expanded collaborative horizons."

Collaboration could even be through USF's engineering school, which could help advance Mote's 200-acre aquapark that relies on state-of-the-art technology to raise fish to restock waters, Shen said.

Or the business school could help figure out how to commercialize that aquapark, Shen said.

Private research groups and public universities are increasingly pairing up as costs increase and ocean studies grow larger, said John Ogden, director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography, a consortium of 21 research organizations.

Last year, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, a Jacques Cousteau-era center north of Fort Lauderdale, merged with Florida Atlantic University.

"These problems are complicated ones that are difficult for any single person or institution to tackle themselves," Ogden said. "Most of the really good studies have been cooperative."

In 2006, Mote and USF created a $20 million endowment for a joint center to study red tide and draw seed money for a seagoing observing system that will stretch from Tampa Bay to Naples and use different tools to find and track red tide..

The new institute would also give Mote access to graduate students, libraries and databases, tools not available at a smaller center like Mote. And state money would not be earmarked for use only on specific projects.

The region already boasts a high concentration of marine research centers, Mahadevan said. The new institute could attract the best minds in science to the Gulf coast.

"By Mote and USF further solidifying that, we become a more nationally prominent center," Shen said.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080118/NEWS/801180480/1060/NEWS0110

[USFan]

From the St. Pete times.

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/18/Hillsborough/USF__Mote_create_mari.shtml