BURLINGTON — Mary Powell, Green Mountain Power president and CEO, and Tom Sullivan, the president of the University of Vermont, signed a memorandum of understanding to form a partnership on Tuesday at the university’s Aiken Center. It is the first public-private partnership of Sullivan’s tenure.
UVM students will have the opportunity to intern, job-shadow or research renewable energy projects with GMP at its new $2.9 million Energy Innovation Center in Rutland. In exchange, GMP will help students eager to learn and enter the workforce.
“This is an opportunity for the University of Vermont to extend our educational and our research opportunities,” Sullivan said during the announcement.
As a land grant university, Sullivan said that UVM has a responsibility to support economic development in the state, noting that the partnership is a “game-changer.”
“Most importantly, it gets right to economic development in the state of Vermont,” he said. “Since 1865, part of our mission has been applied research emphasis as well as economic development.”
Sullivan said he has not been contacted by any other businesses in the private sector to form similar partnerships, but he would welcome their interest in the university.
“I am very supportive of public-private partnerships for this university,” Sullivan said.
The utility and the university will also consider several other joint activities, such as an Energy Innovation Center Lecture Series featuring UVM professors specializing in the energy industry.
The agreement states that UVM and GMP will continue to develop the details of the partnership, including financial commitments. Sullivan said there is currently no budget for the partnership.
Powell said public-private partnerships create a “ flywheel” that spurs innovation.
“Once you get that spinning, it just foster more and more centers of excellence around it,” she said. “This puts us right up front with that transformation.”
Powell said UVM students will offer the utility a “competitive advantage” by applying their understanding of complex systems to the power grid. The topic of complex systems is one of UVM’s premier research foci established through its Transdisciplinary Research Initiative.
Similarly, Lyndon State College partnered with Q Burke Mountain earlier this fall. In part, the agreement was designed to address the ski area’s increased workforce development needs.
