Uconn, world R&D leader launch partnership

MANSFIELD >> The University of Connecticut couldn’t quite close the deal 45 years ago, when William F. Hartman was trying to decide whether to start his academic career here or at the University of Minnesota.

But it did Thursday when Hartman returned as chief operating officer of Fraunhofer USA, the affiliate of a European leader in applied research and development.

Fraunhofer, an inventor of the MP3 technology behind the iPod, announced a partnership with UConn to create the Fraunhofer Center for Energy Innovation.

Thunder rumbled overhead, prompting smiles among the VIPs from academia, industry and government sheltering under can- opy to christen Fraunhofer’s latest U.S. research center.

“Where’s Ben Franklin when we need him?” said Daniel C. Esty, the commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

They are not going to try to capture lightning, but one of the center’s focuses will be storage technology, whether in high-tech batteries or through other new technologies.

“Imagine if we could store energy and deploy it in the peak hours of those hottest summer days,” Esty said.

UConn, Esty’s department and Fraunhofer each are providing $2.4 million over the next four years for the center. The center’s principal investigators will pursue matching funds and other money for specific projects.

There are 60 Fraunhofer centers in Germany and seven in the U.S., all affiliated with major universities, pursuing research on everything from lasers to molecular biology.

The center at UConn will be second in the U.S. focusing on energy. The other is affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hartman said the centers support research and assist in the transfer of technology – bringing ideas and technology to the marketplace.

They typically grow out of collaborations on specific projects, but not all the relationships grow into fullblown research centers.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the German consul to the U. S., Rolf Schutte, joined UConn’s president, Susan Herbst, and chairman, Larry McHugh, at a ceremony announcing the deal.