URA 2006-2007 Annual Report

History 1965 - 2007

The creation of URAmarked amilestone in governmentuniversity cooperation for the management of Federal laboratories. Until 1965, individual universities and regional consortia had built and operated facilities under Federal sponsorship. It was the unique character of particle physics research—which often involved collaborations among scientists from many institutions—that created the need to establish a representative, truly national management organization. The Federal government consulted with the National Academy of Sciences on how to accomplish this goal. The President of the Academy then convened the presidents of the U.S. universities engaged in particle physics, to consider management options for national facilities. Following that meeting, 25 attendees agreed to form a consortium leading to the incorporation of URA.

This concept of fully national, and now increasingly international, cooperative efforts between the Federal government and research universities was developed to address the needs of many fields of science. For four decades, from 1967 through 2006, URA was the sole contractor to the Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies for the design, construction, management, and operation of Fermilab. URA’s success in building and operating Fermilab led to its selection as management and operating (M&O) contractor for the nation’s nextmajor particle accelerator, the SSC. After the project was canceled in 1993, URA managers and staff assisted with the termination activities, which were essentially concluded by the end of 1996, on schedule and under budget.

In accordance with its new policy of periodically holding formal competitions for the award of all of its laboratory M&O contracts, DOE held a competition for the Fermilab contract in 2006. As part of the strategic approach for bidding on the new Fermilab contract, URA teamed with one of its member universities, the University of Chicago (UChicago), to form Fermi Research Alliance, LLC (FRA), a jointly-owned non-profit company. FRA combines URA’s broad geographical representation in the university community and forty years of experience in managing Fermilab, with UChicago’s institutional strength and diversity, prominence in the local region, and sixty years of experience in managing Argonne National Laboratory. The URA-UChicago team garnered one of the highest scores ever awarded in a DOE laboratory contract competition, and DOE awarded the Fermilab contract to FRA, effective January 1, 2007.

Currently, the Fermilab program and its associated scientific and technological enterprises, and participation in the Pierre Auger Observatory Project represent the core of URA’s activities. As appropriate opportunities arise, the corporation will consider submitting proposals to the Federal government, or elsewhere, for the management and operation of other facilities and programs in science and engineering.