Ohio State University has sent out a call to start brainstorming first drafts to design a $50 million research hub called the Energy Advancement and Innovation Center, part of Ohio State's partnership with Engie and Axium Infrastructre.
In 2017, Engie and Axium won a 50-year, $1.165 billion contract to be Ohio State's energy supplier. It was the first deal of its kind for a university in the United States and the largest one-time payment in the university's history. The deal formed the LLC Ohio State Energy Partners.
Among many projects touted by Ohio State Energy Partners as a result of the public-private deal, the Energy Advancement and Innovation Center will be a 66,000-square-foot experimental hub for energy research and technology incubation on campus.