Top leaders from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12) and Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) recently announced their plan to join together to open a new “Oak Ridge-Huntsville Partnership Office” in Huntsville this summer to explore more joint ventures and projects between both public and private partners in Oak Ridge and Huntsville.

The announcement was acknowledged and applauded by Congressman Zach Wamp (R-TN) during the Tennessee Valley Corridor’s National Technology Summit hosted by Congressman Bud Cramer (D-AL) in Huntsville.

“This new office will be jointly funded and supported by Oak Ridge’s Department of Energy facilities and will function as a clearinghouse for organizations like NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the major commands at the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal, the Army Corp of Engineers, the University of Alabama in Huntsville and dozens of other public and private organizations in the Huntsville area. The purpose is to explore more cooperative projects with major institutions in Huntsville and Oak Ridge and with other DOE and NNSA programs across the country,” said Thom Mason, director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“We thought this week was a particularly good time to announce the opening of this new office because the Tennessee Valley Corridor initiative, led by Congressmen Zach Wamp and Bud Cramer, has been instrumental in bringing together key leaders and organizations in Oak Ridge, Huntsville and the region for more than 10 years,” said Darrel Kohlhorst, president and general manager of the Y-12 National Security Complex. “We hope the Huntsville office will help accelerate our efforts to find the synergies and cooperative projects and ventures that can be of benefit to the nation, the Corridor, our communities and organizations.”