Texas A&M University, one of the largest university systems in the United States, has announced plans to open a $6 million marine research center in conjunction with the University of Haifa, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

According to A&M System Chancellor John Sharp, the center, which is planned to open February is “is in keeping with what A&M wanted all along in Israel: It is about teaching and research and it is just the beginning of what this relationship is going to be.”

Large natural gas deposits have been discovered in the eastern Mediterranean and Sharp said part of the appeal for the research center in the northern city of Haifa was tapping into the “oil and gas segment in Israel.” Work at the center will include monitoring ocean flow and is expected to help mitigate risks associated with offshore exploration.

“We’re starting with a $6 million project there but I don’t have any doubt that it’ll grow exponentially over the years,” said Sharp, explaining that research in Israel often leads to startups and new commercial ventures.

“They don’t call it ‘startup nation’ for nothing,” he said.

A more ambitious plan to open a campus in Nazareth, Israel’s largest Arab-majority city, was scrapped when local officials wanted too much control over the campus.

The Texas A&M system, which has over 140,000 students and 28,000 faculty and staff, already has a working agreement with Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba.

In an article last year noting an increasing number of American universities signing cooperative deals with Israeli institutions, Times of Israel technology reporter David Shamah observed that despite the movement on many campuses to boycott Israel, “the record shows that schools that ignore or reject the pressure can profit from relationships with Israeli institutions of higher learning — and not just academically.”

[Photo: Stuart Seeger / Flickr ]