Dream Lives On, The

NJBIZ, May 10, 2004 by Greenwald, John

Our Point of View

While New Jersey may have scuttled the merger of its three public research universities, the dream of a merger has never really died. In reporting this week's cover story on the state's plans for grabbing the lead in stem-cell research, NJBIZ found that some scientists at Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-which would have combined with the New Jersey Institute of Technology to form a megaschool-still long for a merger to take place.

The idea had seemed to make sense. New Jersey gets just a trickle of federal research dollars to study life sciences for a state of its size and sophistication. Consolidating the schools could have created a powerhouse in the contest for federal funds, but the merger was doomed by its complexity and $1.3 billion cost.

However, the story doesn't have to end there. For starters, New Jersey could merge those research institutions that fit naturally together and build on that foundation. In Piscataway, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, which is run by Newark-based UMDNJ, sits less than a mile from the main campus of Rutgers in New Brunswick. Combining them would create a geographic fit and generate R&D clout.

The state's new stem-cell institute will draw on the combined resources of Rutgers and UMDNJ. If such teamwork can help New Jersey gain preeminence in a vital new science, it could become a model for more extensive cooperation between the state's research universities.

email jgreenwald@njbiz.com