The UI is making itself known at some of Illinois’ highest profile public projects thanks to the newly renamed Prairie Research Institute.

Tom Emerson, interim director of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, the newest component of the newly named Prairie Research Institute, says the arrangement has been ╥a real partnership.╙ ISAS has its roots at the UI, starting in 1956 when the Illinois Department of Transportation established and funded an independent transportation archaeology program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
The institute’s reach extends as far south as East St. Louis, where a massive bridge project ends in the middle of a North American prehistoric settlement – possibly the first proof of urbanization prior to European discovery.
It goes as far north as Chicago, where the Asian carp dilemma threatens the long-term viability of Lake Michigan.
And it’s in Decatur at one of the nation’s largest carbon-capture projects – part of a $200 million U.S. Department of Energy test program that could usher in an era of drastically reduced airborne emissions.
PRI executive director William W. Shilts said UI’s increased statewide visibility is just one of the advantages the institute brings to campus – and the benefits will multiply with time.
“We have a broad client base that’s built into what we do,” Shilts said. “It adds visibility, and the surveys bring a certain branding to the university. We already offer a lot to the university, but I also think that will continue to increase in the future.”
The Prairie Research Institute, one of the largest of the UI institutes with 700 employees and a 2011 budget of $77 million, took on its new name in May, changing from the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability. The institute comprises the Illinois Natural History Survey, the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, the Illinois State Geological Survey, the Illinois State Water Survey and the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.
Shilts said the name was chosen to reflect geographical context and the institute’s state-mandated research and data-collection responsibilities.
“The old name wasn’t appropriate anymore” with last year’s addition of the archaeology component, he said.
He said the university would continue benefiting from the public and private partnerships the surveys had developed over the years. And it’s a long list considering the state’s geological and natural history surveys were first commissioned in the 1850s, just as Illinois was developing as a new state.
The four surveys also annually provide summer fieldwork jobs for as many as 400 students.
“We’ve always had high student involvement and produce for them real-world job opportunities,” he said. “Many of them already do their graduate degrees through the surveys.”
In geologic parlance, the newly named Prairie Research Institute would be considered a conglomerate – and leaders say the UI has been the clay that binds them.
Previously, each survey was independent and all were managed by a governing board within the Illinois Department of Natural Resources – and prior to that the Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources – before finding a more fitting home on the UI campus three years ago.
“We were not thriving at IDNR because we weren’t being treated like research organizations,” he said. “I would say we’re definitely thriving here. No other state has anything like this.”
Calling the UI home has brought the surveys closer to one other, leading to greater collaboration, efficiencies, communication and project direction – even in the face of budgetary challenges.
“It’s an idea that has been discussed off and on for the past 50 years,” Shilts said. “I knew it wouldn’t be an easy transition.”
The move has brought the institute closer to campus academic units, a development whose potential, especially with the addition of the State Archaeological Survey, is still being explored.
“My goal is to make sure this organization is integrated,” Shilts said, noting the institute’s advisory board represents a broad spectrum of leaders across the state and includes university units like engineering and agriculture.
Since research is at the core of the institute’s mission, academic leaders continue to identify areas of instructional and research overlap that can be applied to other disciplines.
Shilts said the surveys are different from other university units in that they have statutory responsibilities. The Sustainable Technology Center, for example, created by state mandate in 1984, supports long-term industrial energy and hazardous-waste projects.
“Our stock in trade is unbiased advice,” he said.
None of the surveys’ missions will change because they’re part of the university, he said.
“We’ve always done research that directly serves the state, and the advisory board and I want to ensure that’s not going to change under this new structure,” he said.
“It’s been a real partnership,” said Tom Emerson, interim director of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, formerly the Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program in the university’s department of anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
“We’ve worked with geological survey data for years, so being part of the same institute was kind of a match made in heaven,” Emerson said. “Being placed in a university is just one more plus – another resource to be tapped.”
He said his division, first housed in the 1920s in the UI Natural History Museum, has certainly gained a higher profile through a closer relationship with the other surveys within the institute.
“Archaeology in this state has never had the focal point,” he said. “Before merging with the other surveys we were going in too many different directions.”
The East St. Louis project has led to profound discovery – nearly 400 intact Mississippian homes buried below the current city footprint, and in the shadow of the better-known Cahokia Mounds site.
Emerson said the find illustrates the changing nature of archaeology, and even the mission of the other surveys. He said the bridge dig is being cataloged and preserved offsite, allowing the bridge project to be completed by its 2014 deadline. He said, had it not been for the bridge project, the dig might never have even occurred.
“Resources are important, but development is important, too,” he said. “We try to head off problems before they become problems that could endanger a project.”
He said developers trust the surveys to supply unbiased information to avoid those project “show-stoppers.” Tax incentives and other initiatives have made developers more interested in long-term sustainability, he added, and more willing to partner with the surveys in advance of project planning.
“We go out and interact with the private sector a lot more than we used to,” Emerson said. “We’ve always worked in (public project) development – it’s really been our bread and butter. We’re trying to preserve a resource just like water.”