Technion wins joint bid for NY campus

Israel Institute of Technology to partner with Cornell University in new entrepreneurship, technology center

David Shear|Published: 12.20.11 , 15:09

The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and Cornell University have won a joint bid to build an applied sciences campus in New York that officials hope will be the first step to building an east coast rival to California's Silicon Valley.

The winners of the multi-billion dollar project were officially announced by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday.

Seven universities and consortium submitted bids to build the high-tech campus. The city of New York has promised nearly free city land and up to $100 million in city improvements in exchange.

Cornell announced on Friday that it had received $350 million from an anonymous donor for its plan should they be awarded. This gift is the largest ever given to Cornell in the university's history.

According to their proposals, Cornell and Technion have committed to having the program up and running before the end of 2012 in existing city space and moving it to the newly built campus once ready.

Reprinted with permission from Shalom Life