Chatham Takes Steps To Attract An Academic Research Institution

CHATHAM – The town has a lot to offer an academic institution, from its proximity to a host of coastal resources to physical facilities for research. A new working group is focusing on ways to attract some sort of research program to town.

 The first effort will likely be a forum to solicit input from residents and stakeholders.

 This isn’t the first time town officials have sought to entice an academic research program to town. A similar working group that was set up eight years ago had gotten to the point of compiling a list of 40 to 50 potential colleges and universities and reaching out to three. Two, Northeastern University and Mount Holyoke College, expressed interest. Columbia University also considered holding a symposium here.

 And then COVID struck, and the effort ground to a halt. Officials now hope to take up where that effort left off.

 At its first meeting last week, the academic research collaborative working group discussed that background and ways it might resurrect the initiative.

 Northeastern officials visited the town and were “very, very serious” about a program here, said select board member Dean Nicastro, who was a member of the original working group. Finance committee chair Stephen Daniel, who was also on the previous working group, said that visit showed “the importance of keeping an open mind.”

 What Northeastern was considering was something the group had not anticipated, he said.

 “We were thinking coastal resiliency and fisheries management,” he recalled, “and they seemed to have a real interest in robotics.” John Cullinane, a former Northeastern trustee, said the Boston university has since opened a facility in Portland, Maine, but still may be interested in linkage with Chatham.

 The town can informally reach out to Northeastern, said Town Manager Jill Goldsmith, but if there is the prospect of offering town property — last time there was talk of leasing the former powerhouse building across from the Marconi property — there would have to be a more formal process involving a request for proposals which other institutions can also respond to.

 “We want to keep it fairly open,” said Natural Resources Director Greg Berman.

 Establishing local connections with people who may be affiliated with research institutions is “an important element of what we do next,” said Daniel. It would be ideal to hold a forum while summer residents who may have wider contacts are still in town, added group member Shareen Davis.

 She added that housing could be a serious issue. When Northeastern officials previously visited, Nicastro said, there was a discussion about possibly using space at the former Hotel building on the Marconi campus for living quarters.

 The group will meet again on Friday, Aug. 14 to review a slide deck about what Chatham has to offer an academic institution put together by the previous working group.