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Senate approves first substitute of uSTAR research initiative after debate on governance and financing
Summary
After floor debate over governance, commercialization revenue sharing and bond financing, the Senate moved and approved First Substitute Senate Bill 75 (the uSTAR initiative) with a floor amendment; the motion passed on a roll call reported as 28 yes, 0 no, 1 absent and the bill will be read for the third time.
The Utah Senate on the floor debated and moved forward First Substitute Senate Bill 75, a statewide university research and commercialization initiative commonly referred to in the transcript as USAR or uSTAR.
Sponsor Senator Mansell outlined the bill as a bid to counter a declining share of the high‑tech market in Utah. "If we don't do something relatively significant, we are going to become, as I define it, one of the best educated, smartest call centers in the world," Mansell said, framing the legislation as an economic development strategy rather than a conventional higher‑education program.
The bill requests an initial package of operating and capital support: $11,000,000 for recruiting and retaining research teams, $4,000,000 to establish five innovation centers around the state and $2,250,000 for a capped administration line. Mansell described an arrangement in which universities would continue to receive royalties and equities from commercialization;…
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