Universities Research Association (URA) is a consortium of 89 leading research-oriented universities primarily in the United States, with members also in Canada, Japan, and Italy.

At the behest of President Lyndon Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee and the National Academy of Sciences, the not-for-profit URA corporation was founded in 1965 for management and operation of research facilities in the national interest. Presidents of participating universities organized their scientific and administrative talent toward this end, within the URA governing structure.

URA’s charter is “...to acquire, plan, construct, and operate machines, laboratories, and other facilities, under contract with the Government of the United States or otherwise, for research, devel-opment and education in the physical and biological sciences... and to educate and train technical, research and student personnel in said sciences.”

The corporation acts under the authority of its governing body, the Council of Presidents of its 91 member universities. A Board of Trustees appoints boards of overseers for each major research activity. The Washington headquarters office of URA coordinates the activities of the Council and boards, and is responsible for oversight and governance of URA’s enterprises and for corporate relations with the Federal government, industry, academe, and the general public.

From 1967 to 2006, URA was the prime contractor to the Department of Energy for the creation and operation of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Batavia, Illinois. Fermilab is home to the Tevatron, the world’s highest-energy accelerator for elementary particle physics research.

In 2007, URA joined with the University of Chicago to form Fermi Research Alliance, LLC, which now holds the Fermilab contract.

Experiments using particle beams produced in Fermilab’s accelerators explore the fundamental nature of matter, energy, space and time, and their relationships in the physical universe. These experiments have led to the discovery of elementary components of matter, such as the elusive top quark in 1995. Continuing upgrades and new experiments enable Fermilab to remain a global center for research at the frontiers of physics in such areas as the search for the Higgs boson, evidence for a new family of supersymmetric particles, the search for extra dimensions in the universe, and the exploration of neutrino properties. Fermilab is also increasingly involved in particle astrophysics and related astronomical sciences, through participation in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory Project, and the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search at the Soudan Underground Laboratory in Minnesota.

On behalf of the U.S. participants in a collaboration of scientists from some 15 countries, URA has received funding from the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation for the U.S. share of the $100 million Pierre Auger Project. Under the leadership in the U.S. of Nobel Laureate James Cronin, this Project is designed to probe the mysterious origins and nature of cosmic rays in an energy regime some 100 million times greater than any accelerator has produced. This major undertaking involves the construction of two Rhode Island-size detector arrays. Construction of the Southern Hemisphere Array, located in Argentina, is nearing completion and is to be followed by a Northern Hemisphere Array in the U.S.

For Fiscal Year 2007, DOE funding for URA and FRA contracts is approximately $340 million, and NSF funding is about $1.0 million.

Contact Info:
Universities Research Association, Inc.
1111 19th St., N.W.
Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 293-1382
info@ura.nw.dc.us