Strategy Helps with Financing and Scheduling Constraints
More and more frequently academic institutions are turning to public/private partnerships (P3) to meet growth demands that exceed the school's normally available capital funding streams.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Ranked among the Top 50 hospitals in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in New Hampshire is expanding its commitment to grow a vital and integrated cancer program. The Center recently completed its 120,000-sf, $33-million renovation and expansion to the Barbara E. Rubin building (part of the Dartmouth Medical School), nearly doubling the space available for cancer research and patient care.

Duke University
Duke University's recently completed Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences (CIEMAS) is the first project completed under the Pratt Vision 2010. This vision, spearheaded by the Pratt School of Engineering, aims to create a culture for interdisciplinary research and translational breakthroughs in engineering design, medicine, and basic and applied sciences. The goal of this vision is to develop new products, processes, diagnostic techniques, and therapies for improving the human condition and the environment.

Cornell University
Duffield Hall is a new 155,000-sf interdisciplinary research and instructional center. The three-storey building contains the most highly serviced laboratory space in the College of Engineering for electronics, optoelectronics, material synthesis, and processing, as well as the emerging fields of microelectronics, nanotechnology, and nanobiotechnology. A 20,000-sf Class 1,000 cleanroom is on the first floor. Within the cleanroom approximately 1,000 sf of space is devoted specifically to biology research. A portion of the laboratories also has low vibration and low electromagnetic field standards and extensive central lab services requirements.

Lessons for Effective Decision-Making, Governance and Application of Technology
Large capital projects commonly share four key characteristics: high front-end capital intensity, long lead times, dependence upon specialized technology, and large unit size--indicators of the ‘lumpiness' and inflexibility of such projects. Projects exhibiting such characteristics tend to face governance challenges arising from unusual contracting arrangements or closed processes of decision-making. Examples of such projects include many high-profile endeavors--often called "mega projects--such as the Channel Tunnel, and offshore oil exploration and production in the North Sea. Based on extensive research over the past 15 years, Dr. Audley Genus, senior lecturer in Technology Policy and Strategy at the University of Newcastle on Tyne Business School, diagnoses these characteristic, but sometimes poorly understood, challenges and offers guidance on how to avoid the problems and costs they can cause.