UA President Peter Likins, along with ASU President Michael Crow and NAU President John Haeger, are touting a proposal for a campus in downtown Phoenix that would give medical students the opportunity to do research.

Right now UA medical school students are in Phoenix hospitals learning how to treat patients, but they have no research opportunities, Likins said.

As the only medical school in the state of Arizona, the UA plays an important role in Phoenix, sending students to do clinical work there, Likins said.

Now the UA medical school is looking to expand opportunities for students in Phoenix, said Dr. Ken Ryan, interim dean of the College of Medicine.

"We're eager to find a way to play a role throughout the state," Ryan said.

In order to fund the project, Likins said that UA will pool with ASU $17 million of the $182 million allocated by the legislature to fund research buildings.

The buildings would include classroom instruction and clinical research space, as well as student housing, all of which would be a boon to the city's economic redevelopment efforts.

Crow, Likins and Haeger were short on specifics Tuesday when it came to how they planned to complete the project.

The legislature has approved the process, Likins said. Now the universities are putting together initial proposals.

"As soon as we're ready, we'll begin building a building," he said.

However, they were long on optimism in terms of the impact it could have on the city and the region.

"I do think we are in an era, perhaps driven by adversity, where we are looking hard at ways to do things better," Likins said. "And there is a direct tie between education and economic development."

The UA already has a building it leases for students who work in hospitals in Phoenix. The building houses offices, including an admissions office and an alumni office, Likins said.

Likins said UA hopes eventually to open an extension of its Tucson medical school at the new campus, move its existing Phoenix-area operations from leased space into the proposed complex and create a greater research and development presence in the area.

The universities' project, the Arizona Biomedical Collaboration, had been billed as a brand new way to coordinate research among the three state universities and the state's major hospitals.