April 22, 2004

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Michigan State University (MSU) announced today that they have formed a partnership to cooperate on environmental research.

DEQ will identify major environmental areas that may benefit from research to better understand the most advanced cutting-edge science. MSU will assist by applying its immense research capacity to help the government understand the current state of the science and forward the research to advance critical areas.

“MSU can be a tremendous partner to our department and its environmental work,” said Steven Chester, DEQ Director. “We hope to improve our access to scientific information to enhance our capacity for a sound scientific basis for decision making. The partnership is another opportunity for us to stretch our resources.”

According to Tom Dietz, Director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program at MSU, “This partnership is important to the university’s environmental research agenda. The partnership also provides a vital connection for strategic communication of important environmental research data to DEQ staff, policy makers, legislators, and citizens as well as opportunities for feedback from the users of our research data and information.”

The partnership agreement, signed on Earth Day will help create an innovative funding strategy to support cooperative projects and leverage resources for collaborative research projects.

Editor’s note: DEQ news releases are available on the department’s Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq.

Revised April 22, 2004 by Michelle M. Cancino