In a new partnership that will use American talent to bring business to the United Kingdom, the British government has agreed to pay $113 million for an initiative between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Cambridge.

With another $22 million from British industry, the two universities will exchange faculty, students and ideas.

"It is of great advantage to Britain's future development that we are able to attract to Britain those dynamic institutions in the United States economy that have made a huge difference to the creation of businesses and jobs," said Gordon Brown, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The British government hopes the two universities will exchange technology, research techniques and educational philosophies. According to Cambridge vice chancellor Sir Alec Broers, his university is interested in combining engineering and management education.

The two universities hope that this and other initiatives will expand the interface between the modern university and industry.

Representatives of the two schools say collaboration could help them develop programs that will stimulate emerging technologies.

Just as the new partnership stretches across international borders, the two schools hope their cooperation with industry--particularly in the United Kingdom--will improve productivity in an expanding global economy.

"For the University of Cambridge, this new partnership represents an opportunity to capitalize on MIT's entrepreneurial culture; and to collaborate in extending MIT's model of university-industrial partnership to the United Kingdom," said MIT Chancellor Lawrence Bacow in a press release.