The Sun-Sentinel reports this morning that the Palm Beach County commission approved an $87 million proposal to help bring German research giant Max Planck to Jupiter. The proposal calls for the Max Planck Society to receive $190 million to build a facility on the Jupiter campus of Florida Atlantic University alongside Scripps Florida. The county on Tuesday committed to provide $87 million, and Max Planck now will seek the rest from the state’s innovation incentive fund.
Despite an ongoing budget crunch, commissioners lauded the opportunities a Max Planck institute could create: solidifying a technologically advanced bioresearch cluster in the county; creating educational opportunities for all student levels; and, just as significant, giving the county its own little corner on international prestige. Read more
This is how we can leverage our university to spur economic development – if can get beyond county administrator severance packages, dirt-road politics, fights over ECAT and library funding and other minutea.