In his State of the State Address last night, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen challenged University of Memphis President Shirley Raines to make The U of M a top 25 metropolitan research university in the next decade.
Bredesen's challenge comes three weeks after he made a similar challenge to University of Tennessee President Jan Simek during a speech about a bill to create a new UT Energy Campus at Oak Ridge.
During his speech in support of the bill, Bredesen said he hoped the partnership between UT and the science labs at Oak Ridge would spur UT to become one of the foremost research institutions in the country.
To foster the new initiative, he proposed doubling UT's funding, which drew flak from U of M boosters who were upset that the new plan could decrease the number of grants to The University.
Since then, Raines has cobbled together the Memphis Research Consortium, a group that could draw more research funds to the Memphis area. The MRC is comprised of several medical corporations and facilities, including the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, St. Jude Children's Hospital and FedEx.
"The General Assembly's approval of the UT Energy Campus at Oak Ridge has brought her long-simmering effort to a boil," the governor said of The U of M's partnership.
Bredesen said the MRC can help The U of M "grow its research mission" and "help lay the foundations for an even more robust biotech economy in Memphis."
"We consistently reach those upper levels in our sports programs," he said. "There is no reason we can't do the same with our academic achievements, either in Knoxville or in Memphis."
