Hello and Welcome

The Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions will be held March 4-5, 2008, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In conjunction with the ORAU annual meeting, the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies (ORCAS) will host a workshop on Relationships Between Universities, National Laboratories, and the Department of Energy.

Invitation to Attend

The meetings will be held at the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies (ORCAS) on March 4-5, 2008. Events will begin on March 4 at 1:30 p.m. and will adjourn on March 5 by 1:15 p.m. You may register online or you may request a brochure and return the form to ORAU via fax. There is no registration fee to attend these meetings.

The business session of the Annual Council Meeting will include reports on the State of ORAU, elections to the Board of Directors, and Sponsoring Institution membership applications. Attendance by the ORAU Councilor, as the institutional representative, is necessary to conduct the business of ORAU, Inc., during the meeting. In the event the ORAU Councilor cannot attend the meeting, another designated representative from your institution, another member of the Council, or a member of the Board of Directors may vote on behalf of your institution. Such proxy shall be valid only for this meeting, and is automatically revoked if the Council member attends the meeting. You may indicate your proxy when you register for the meeting. The deadline for registration is Friday, February 15, 2008. It is important that non-citizens register as early as possible, but no later than February 8, 2008, in order to meet security requirements for access to ORNL.

In conjunction with the ORAU Annual Meeting, ORCAS will host a workshop on Relationships Between Universities, National Laboratories, and the Department of Energy.

The workshop will explore opportunities for universities to meet the needs of DOE and its laboratories in education and research. Successful collaborations between universities and DOE labs and opportunities for the future collaborations and DOE extramural funding will be highlighted. Senior-level representatives from the DOE Office of Science, the national laboratories, and universities are invited to attend.

The workshop is being developed by the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies (ORCAS). ORCAS was established to address major policy issues that have substantial science and technology content. This is your opportunity to participate in an ORCAS event on a topic of direct interest to your institution.

The founding members of ORCAS include ORAU, UT-Battelle/ORNL, Battelle Memorial Institute, University of Tennessee and the seven UT-Battelle core universities—Duke University, Florida State University, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State University, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, and Virginia Tech.

Complimentary hotel rooms (room and tax only) are available for the first 50 registrants for this event at the Doubletree Hotel in Oak Ridge; however, only one individual per institution will receive a complimentary hotel room. See Hotel and Area Information for additional details. We look forward to your participation in this exciting event.