An academic-business portal in NY

Answering a call to increase communications between businesses and academic researchers, New York State’s Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities and the State University of New York recently announced the intent to create an free online, public portal for job listings, internships and research information for NY state, reports Inside Higher Ed.

The portal will allow companies to search the site for a particular topic, locate a professor in that field and research other important resources business might need. SUNY faculty members will be asked to provide information from basic contact information to lengthy abstracts.

“We want to make our experts available to the business community. You hear about town-gown issues. This is an effort to break those barriers,” said John R. Ryan, chancellor of the SUNY system.

The portal would be open to students to search for internships or job listings. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has pushed for a system where New York companies can more efficiently recruit students and retain graduates of colleges in the state.

“[Clinton] was struck by the disconnect between the information that flows from college campuses and the business community,” Abraham M. Lackman, president of CICU. “We do a good job attracting students to our colleges, which is the first half of the equation. What are we doing to keep them here? The portal is the concrete answer to that question,” Lackman said .

Lackman mentioned that he is not aware of another project where universites pool academic research from public and private colleges.

The $2.5 million portal has yet to be launched, but officials hope it will be up and running next year. No Web site exists yet for the project, and developers said they are still searching for possible vendors. They are aiming to have the portal running next year.