Military contract could make NU a national player

[BRoss]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20121011/N ... 19888/1685

University of Nebraska leaders have signed a contract to do research for the U.S. military, an agreement that could be worth as much as $84 million and turbocharge efforts to make NU a national player in scientific and medical research.

NU President J.B. Milliken and Gen. Robert Kehler, commander of the Bellevue-based United States Strategic Command, appeared together at a Thursday morning press conference to announce the agreement, known as a University Affiliated Research Center, or UARC.

Milliken and other top university officials believe the agreement could last for decades, becoming a steady source of funding as Nebraska's four campuses attempt to collectively edge their way into the top tier of research universities.

“We certainly hope that this will be a long, long term relationship,” Milliken said.

The agreement comes with secrecy uncommon on a college campus.

For the first time, several University of Nebraska campuses will house classified military documents, a designation meaning that a part of UNL's Behlen Laboratory will be remodeled and may be sealed off from students.

But university leaders have decided such trade-offs are worth the trouble. The UARC, awarded to NU by StratCom, will bring between $30 million and $84 million in research funding to the university's four campuses in the next five years, university leaders said. Those campuses could haul in exponentially more money for related and spin-off research in the decades to come.