by Talk Business & Politics staff (staff2@talkbusiness.net)
Jerry Adams, founder and president of the Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA), is retiring Dec. 31, 2021, with ARA CEO Bryan Barnhouse to also be the president beginning Jan. 1, the group announced Friday (Nov. 19).
Adams founded ARA in 2008 on the principle that “research matters” and it is central to the state’s competitiveness in the knowledge economy. The non-profit economic development organization evolved from the visioning of Accelerate Arkansas. Specifically, ARA invests in the recruitment, recognition, and retention of strategic research talent at the five major research universities, which represent over 90% of the federal research dollars that flow into the state. ARA focuses these leaders to accelerate their impact on the economic future of the state and the nation.
Adams established ARA as a public private partnership, with 20 private sector chief executives and chancellors of the state’s five major research universities (University of Arkansas, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas State University, UA Little Rock, and University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff) sitting on the board of trustees. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration National Center for Toxicological Research based in Pine Bluff acts a sixth partner.
