M Square—University of Maryland Enterprise Campus Moves Forward

The long-anticipated University of Maryland Enterprise Campus, a new research park known as M Square, took another step toward becoming a reality today with Gov. Robert Ehrlich's announcement of the approval of $5 million in state funding to assist in its development.

The 115-acre research park, adjacent to the university and the College Park Metro Station, offers the opportunity for the top public research university in the mid-Atlantic region to effectively connect the intellectual capacity of our faculty and students with large and small companies, government laboratories and other specialized centers to facilitate a growing knowledge economy.

The university is the catalyst at the center of this synergistic public-private enterprise that links the major scientific and technological resources of the region and holds great potential to benefit the state's economy, specifically in the creation of thousands of jobs for Prince George's County and Maryland residents. Corporations and government agencies want to tap into the first-rate faculty and students at the University of Maryland and also partner with other resources already located nearby, including the American Center for Physics, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, the Food and Drug Administration and others in the greater Washington area.

The approval of funding allows the process of securing a developer for the project to continue moving forward along with the acquisition of tenants for the site, such as the recently announced new Center for the Advanced Study of Language that will conduct groundbreaking research to support the nation's critical need for increased capabilities to understand and translate languages. The university is looking forward to attracting firms from a broad range of disciplines including computer science, mathematics, engineering, physical and life sciences, biotechnology, and linguistics.