As hundreds of staff and alumni gathered Tuesday at the University of Oregon to celebrate a $500 million pledge from its best known grad to build a science complex, the head of Oregon Health & Science University had the first word.

That was by design.

Though Phil and Penny Knight's seismic gift is directed at Oregon, the gathering in Eugene emphasized that closing the gap between scientific discovery and "real world" impact will require the collective efforts of peer institutions in Portland and Corvallis.

The state's most prominent public universities are, in the words of one official, "better together."

UO President Michael Schill has made clear he sees the school's $1 billion vision to create an applied science research complex from scratch as a win for all of Oregon. He said the new campus will "reshape the state's public higher education landscape" by training new generations of scientists.

His counterparts, and a state higher education official appear to agree.

"We couldn't be happier," OHSU President Joseph Robertson told The Oregonian/OregonLive. "It's a great day for the University of Oregon, and for the state."

Ben Cannon, executive director of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, said the gift "creates significant opportunities for collaboration" across the state. "This is very exciting," he added.

Phil Knight graduated from UO in 1959 and ran track for Bill Bowerman, his future business partner. The two built Nike into one of the best known brands in the world. By the time Knight stepped down as chairman of the company's board this June, Nike had a market value of more than $84 billion.

The Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact will belong to UO, but it will have a broad reach across the state, school officials said. Upon full buildout in a decade, the three-building complex along Franklin Boulevard in Eugene is envisioned to be a hub of research activity and innovation that will lead to new products, ideas and discoveries that better humanity and the world. Upon completion, an estimated 750 people will work at the new center, and 550 students of varying levels will conduct research.

What that will mean in practical terms is yet-to-be determined, but UO envisions bringing in new experts in robotics or engineering or other disciplines to brainstorm and team up with the school's biologists, biochemists, microbiologists and other researchers.

Robertson said the uncertainty is exciting. "Science is unpredictable."

In Corvallis, Oregon State University President Ed Ray described the gift as "fantastic," and added he's been advocating for greater cooperation among the universities since he arrived in the state in 2003. "I told people that unless the public universities in Oregon learned how to behave as a virtual mega-university," Ray said, "we could never do what [the University of] Michigan could do for Michigan, what [the University of] Wisconsin could do for Wisconsin."

"We really need to collaborate and figure out how to leverage all of the capabilities we have."

The Knights' most recent half-billion-dollar gift to an Oregon institution is evidence that collaboration is starting to take root.

"The three of us working together is a pretty awesome thing," Ray said of the OSU, OHSU and UO.

Oregon is, in some ways, still a bit player in the national higher education picture. Oregon State and OHSU brought $336 million and $376 million in research dollars respectively into the state during the last fiscal year. UO accounted for just $117 million. Throw in Portland State University's $65 million, and Oregon's largest schools collectively still fall short of the University of Washington's $1.3 billion in research activity.

Research brings more money, but also prestige to a university and a state. Ray said the Knights' gift positions UO to become a "major player" in the applied sciences world nationwide. That, in turn, has a significant effect on the school and the state's reputation.

"I think it will help all of us," Ray added.

Schill called his counterparts at other Oregon universities in the past few days to let them know the announcement was imminent.

For Robertson, who sat on the UO search committee which hired Schill in 2015, the idea of teaming up was old hat. Collaboration between the two schools was a conversation point during Schill's job interview.

Partnership between schools in a close-knit area is not new. In North Carolina, the Research Triangle consists of a number of private and public universities that flex their collective muscle.

Robertson says what makes Oregon unique is the distance between the campuses. "It takes establishing a culture," he said, "not only of willing, but wanting to collaborate."

In the past decade, OHSU in Portland has tried to establish a culture of teamwork with other schools. OHSU and PSU's new School of Public Health is just underway, and OSU and OHSU team up on a pharmacy program.

The teamwork is doubly important as construction continues on the new home of the Knight Cancer Institute at OHSU, another project backed in part by $500 million from Phil and Penny Knight.

Robertson said that "tremendous infusion of capital" at both schools in such short order raises the stakes. "I think the faculty will be more motivated to do that [collaborate], than ever before."

On Tuesday, university leaders announced the Knights' gift before a packed audience of faculty, students, staff, trustees and some elected officials. Gov. Kate Brown gave brief remarks and threw up the Oregon "O." The Knights did not attend.

During Schill's speech, he swept his arms back and forth swiftly, grinning ear to ear about the "simply extraordinary" commitment from the Knights.

The president, who is entering his second year on the job, said the gift will play a role in transforming the state's economy. In a separate interview, he said that Oregon has been outpaced by the Silicon Valley and Seattle in economic growth for years.

UO officials revealed the $500 million commitment from the Knights on the school's website Monday evening. The Knights are giving the money in $50 million increments during the next decade. The school wants to raise another $500 million from donors who have shown an interest in science in the past.

The university plans to open the first building within three years, but is depending on $100 million from the state Legislature to help make the deal possible. Lawmakers approved $200 million in bonds to finance the cancer institute at OHSU previously.

State support, Schill told The Oregonian Editorial Board, is crucial in achieving the vision of the $1 billion plan.

"It says that the state is behind us," he said. But the Knights' gift is not contingent on state support.

Oregon's higher education commission will meet in November to discuss the $100 million request. The volunteer board will face competing interests as it makes recommendations to Brown.

OSU alone is asking for $69.5 million in state bonds to help pay for expansion to its Bend campus.

Cannon said if Oregon approves the $100 million request in addition to other capital projects, that would represent an "unprecedented level of state support."



-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen