news-record.com

The budding partnership between N.C. A&T and UNCG is being built to last.

The schools announced plans last week to create a $46 million shared data center at their Gateway Research Park South campus near I-85. The facility would house the nerve center of both schools' computer functions, as well as those of Gateway South, which will house a Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering.

And while the price tag may seem steep at first blush, it's actually a bargain.

By building the new center together, the schools will save nearly $60 million in construction and operating costs. And, since both institutions are approaching capacity in their current data operations, UNCG and A&T eventually would have needed new facilities anyway.

Built separately, the three facilities could have cost taxpayers as much as $102 million.

Given the schools' physical proximity to one another, and their ownership of not one, but two shared research campuses (Gateway Research Park North occupies the old School for the Deaf campus near Bryan Park), it makes sense to leverage resources this way.

It also makes sense to invest in these promising efforts to use cutting-edge research to attract industry and create a more knowledge-based economy.

Lawmakers should say yes to the schools' funding request.