By Patrick Baron

SPRINGFIELD – Plans for a $500 million Chicago-based research center that will be the centerpiece of a statewide network of research hubs is moving forward.

Officials said they expect the network to serve as a launching pad for new businesses throughout Illinois.

Governor Bruce Rauner and others announced Tuesday the $500 million in funding for the University of Illinois’ Discovery Partners Institute, or DPI, was in the budget lawmakers passed last month. The network also got its first corporate donation from OSF St. Francis Medical Centers in Peoria.

DPI is a public-private partnership that leaders say will eventually lead to technology innovation centers in cities across Illinois. Rauner called it Illinois’ answer to what other universities like Stanford in Silicon Valley and Harvard on the east coast have done to advance technological innovation locally.

“This seed investment from the state of Illinois lays the foundation,” Rauner said. “We are going to raise multiples of that from the private sector in the coming months and in the coming years.”

University of Illinois President Tim Killeen said the project will help create new businesses and grow the economy.

“We are determined to deliver on this shared vision creating a world-class incubator of innovation that will launch many new businesses and drive waves of economic growth across this city and to every corner of our state,” he said.

Killeen said the system has opened an office on Wacker Drive in Chicago and plans to expand DPI operating space to more than 20,000 square feet. The university system will contribute $6 million over the next four years to the efforts. The DPI office in Chicago is already in operation.

Rauner and lawmakers had previously withheld funding from the state’s universities during the two and a half years that they failed to pass a budget.