§18B-12A-4. Powers and duties of governing bodies and centers.

The primary responsibility of each center is to foster and support economic development and the advancement and commercialization of new and emerging technologies through collaboration agreements between business-industry and the respective doctoral institution. To that end, the governing body of each center has the following powers and duties:

(a) To adopt and amend, from time to time, a statement of purpose and scope of operations. When the governing body amends the purpose or scope of a center, the governing body shall advise the appropriate doctoral institution of the changes;

(b) To employ a president subject to the provisions of section five of this article;

(c) To approve employment of other staff recommended by the president as being necessary and appropriate to carry out the purpose and scope of the center;

(d) To serve as fiscal agent and provide additional services, including, but not limited to, evaluation of technology, verification and assessment of market applications, grant administration and human resource management for any entity associated with the doctoral institution if the entity is engaged in business-industry collaborations, technology advancement and commercialization activities and research into new areas of economic development;

(e) To meet as a governing body: Provided, That centers created under this article are exempt from the provisions of section three, article nine-a, chapter six of this code and from the provisions of article one, chapter twenty-nine-b of this code;

(f) To receive, purchase, hold, lease, use, sell and dispose of real and personal property of all classes, including all kinds of intellectual property, subject to the provisions of section ten of this article;

(g) To receive and accept from any public or private agency, corporation, association, person, partnership, company or any other organization or entity of any nature whatsoever grants to be expended in accomplishing the objectives of this article and to receive and accept from the state, from any municipality, county or other political subdivision of the state and from any other source, aid or contributions of either money, property or other things of value to be held, used and applied only for the purposes for which the grants and contributions may be made;

(h) To accept and expend any gift, grant, contribution, bequest, endowment or other money for the purposes of this article and to make a maximum effort to encourage external support for the center's programs. Any transfer of endowment or other assets by the doctoral institution to a center or by the center to the doctoral institution for management or investment shall be formalized in a memorandum of agreement to assure, at a minimum, that any restrictions governing the future disposition of funds are preserved;

(i) To make, amend and repeal bylaws and rules consistent with the provisions of this article to carry into effect the purpose and scope of the center and, subject to such directions and limitations as may be contained in its governing documents, to delegate the exercise of any of its powers to the president except for the power to approve budgets; to make, amend or repeal its governing documents; or to alter the purpose or scope of the center;

(j) In addition to the powers and duties provided for in this section and any other powers and duties that may be assigned to it by law or agreement, each center has such other powers and duties as may be necessary or expedient to accomplish the objectives of this article or as provided by law.