Michigan’s University Research Corridor (URC) contributed $17.5 billion to Michigan’s economy in fiscal year 2014, an increase of $700 million over the previous year, according to the Ninth Annual Economic Impact & Benchmark Report issued in January 2016.

The URC, an alliance of the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University, is one of the nation’s top research clusters and the engine for innovation in Michigan and the Great Lakes region, increasing economic prosperity and connecting Michigan to the world.

The URC also ranked highly in the transfer of research and development, surpassing its five-year average for the number of patents issued, licensing and options activity and invention disclosures for the third straight year.

The URC’s $17.5 billion net impact in Michigan is up from $16.8 billion the previous year and $12.9 billion in 2007, the first year the report was published. For every dollar the state invested in the three URC universities, Michigan saw $22 in economic benefits, according to the report.

Nearly $1 billion was generated by URC universities in the city of Detroit during 2015. This includes contributing to 11,600 jobs and providing more than 300 initiatives, among  them 73 community-building programs, 66 public health programs and 41 community service programs.

Researchers from all three University of Michigan campuses are working with Flint community partners on seven projects that have received initial seed funding from U-M President Mark Schlissel.

UM-Flint Chancellor Susan Borrego and UM-Flint Provost Douglas Knerr hosted more than 140 faculty members from the Flint, Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses in January 2016 to discuss ideas for collaborations and opportunities to work with community organizations responding to the Flint water crisis. The president then committed to providing seed funding, supported by donor gifts, to help get the work started quickly. Proposals generated through this meeting were evaluated by the Office of Provost Martha Pollack and seven projects were selected to receive funding totaling $131,500.

“We look forward to joining with our colleagues from throughout the state to continue our work to provide solutions for our community,” Borrego said. “These efforts will put our leading academic experts in direct contact with our community partners to provide important insight into how the water crisis has affected us and will continue to impact us—so that we all can continue to work together to move Flint forward.”

“Each of the research projects deals with important topics and they will all have different benefits that will lead to better ways to address the issues that have risen from the Flint water situation,” Pollack said.

Another recent partnership between Google and the University of Michigan’s Flint and Ann Arbor campuses aims to provide a smartphone app and other digital tools to Flint residents and officials to help them manage the ongoing water crisis. The app and other tools will help predict where lead levels will be highest in the city’s water, and they’ll pull together information and resources to make the crisis easier to navigate for those affected. That project was made possible by a $150,000 grant from Google.

April Fool’s Day 2016 was fitting timing for the 10th anniversary of Festifools, a colorful, comical parade of papier-mâché characters conceived by Mark Tucker, art director at the U-M Lloyd Hall Scholars Program (LHSP).

Inspired by the papier-mâché floats of the carnival celebration in Viareggio, Tuscany, Tucker worked with former student Shoshana Hurand to develop an event that would bring people of different backgrounds together to create public art. Originally working with a class of non-art majors, Tucker went on to recruit other students and community members looking for a chance to be creative and meet new people. Now hundreds show up to promenade along Main Street in Ann Arbor, Mich., with their hand-made creations, some almost 15 feet tall. A companion evening event, called Fool Moon, snakes through the downtown area lit by similarly crafted luminaria.

Festifools is now supported by the university with two LHSP classes and a 2,500-square-foot facility at which students can construct their creations. The community is also invited to drop-in workshops where they can get hands-on help from some of the region’s most talented public art artists.

What is an “Indian”? And is that even the proper term to refer to Michigan’s first people? U-M students were recently asked to explore these questions and others through a unique Archives and Oral Histories course, which gave them rare access to Anishinaabe rituals, customs and celebrations. (Anishinaabe refers to the Ojibwe, Odawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi peoples of Canada and the United States.)

The idea for the course came to Anita Gonzalez, U-M professor of theatre and drama, after she went on the annual U-M Road Scholars tour. Organized by the Office of the Vice President for Government Relations, the trip takes faculty on a five-day tour throughout Michigan in the spring to expose them to the state’s economy, government and politics, culture, educational systems, health and social issues, history and geography.

While on the trip, Gonzalez feel in love with the Upper Peninsula and was surprised to learn that there was no connection between the university and a tribe the tour had visited: the Sault Ste. Marie Chippewas. Gonzalez approached Road Scholars organizer Dana Sitzler, associate director of state outreach, about co-writing a Third Century Initiative grant to develop a course that would develop that connection.

Sitzler knew the only way the project could work was if tribal leaders were on board, so she took the idea to Cecil E. Pavlat Sr., retired leader of the Sault Chippewas, and Jacqueline Minton. Minton, cultural buildings coordinator for the tribe, manages the Mary Murray Cultural Camp on Sugar Island, across from Sault Ste. Marie. She regularly organizes events to help students in the tribe better understand their culture. Pavlat and Minton were happy to participate in a project that would increase understanding about native people living in Michigan.

The team arranged meetings in Ann Arbor and on Sugar Island, culminating in a four-day immersive experience that allowed students to learn a number of traditions firsthand, including corn teachings, a sweat lodge, sunrise services and storytelling. The first part of the course immersed students in the culture of Native Americans and the second part asked them to take what they learned and turn it into a performance piece.

By the end of the course, student questions about the appropriateness of the term “Indian” were finally was resolved. Pavlat told them that its use was all about the intent of the user—as simple as that.

The U-M Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) launched a campaign through the Michigan-based crowdfunding platform Patronicity to help transform a vacant 3,200-square-foot building on the Detroit Community Schools campus into the Brightmoor Maker Space, a place for youth and adults to build their creative making skills and incubate business ideas.

The Stamps School’s partnership with the MEDC follows an endorsement from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which awarded the Stamps School a two-year $100,000 matching grant for the project as part of the prestigious Knight Arts Challenge program in Detroit.

“This funding will allow us to officially move forward with our plans to provide a much-needed physical space that will expand the impact of our ongoing arts programming in the Brightmoor community,” said Gunalan Nadarajan, dean of the Stamps School.

“Stamps is committed to being a part of the re-imagining of Detroit that is underway across the city, and fostering the role of creative making in that revitalization.”

– Gunalan Nadarajan, dean of the Stamps School

Nadarajan said that over the past five years, Stamps students, faculty and staff have been working actively with the Brightmoor community, developing strong arts programming with Detroit Community Schools (a K-12 charter school) and community organizations such as Brightmoor Alliance and Neighbors Building Brightmoor.

“Stamps is committed to being a part of the re-imagining of Detroit that is underway across the city, and fostering the role of creative making in that revitalization,” Nadarajan said.

When the Patronicity crowdfunding goal of $25,000 was met by July 10, the match from
MEDC’s Public Spaces Community Places program activated an initial $50,000 Knight Arts Challenge Grant to launch Brightmoor’s first year of active programming.

Funds collected for the Brightmoor Maker Space were used to repair and update the vacant building, purchase equipment and work tools, and develop community resources and programs to support skills-building, creativity and entrepreneurship.