After 10 months of waiting, the University of Puerto Rico and the Molecular Sciences Research Center signed a new one-year agreement Wednesday that clears the way for the transfer of $1 million to the nonprofit corporation, one week after the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) revealed a deadlock between the two sides that had left the scientific institution without the budgeted funds for its operations.

Although the signing took place Wednesday, the CPI learned that the deal was negotiated last Friday, May 8, two days after this news outlet’s story was published. A news conference was scheduled last Tuesday to make the announcement but was later canceled.

Unlike the previous agreement, which expired June 30, 2025, after remaining in effect for six years, the new pact “enables a $1 million transfer of funds for this fiscal year and establishes a framework for collaboration, compliance and operational continuity, with an allocation, subject to Governing Board approval, of an additional $1 million for fiscal year 2027,” UPR President Zayira Jordán Conde said in written remarks.

“This determination reflects responsible and necessary management to protect the continuity of scientific research, but also to ensure that every institutional resource is administered with clear controls, compliance and a vision of sustainability,” she added.

Jordán Conde defended the signing of the memorandum of understanding as more than a mere transfer of funds, presenting it as part of an institutional reorganization aimed, she said, at addressing the Molecular Center’s immediate needs while moving it toward a “more sustainable” structure aligned with UPR’s academic, scientific and fiscal priorities.

The deadlock that had left the center without a new pact stemmed from differences between the parties over the agreement’s fiscal terms, governance clauses, duration and annual funding allocation for its operations.

In addition, Molecular Center Director Eduardo Nicolau had warned about clauses the university president’s office wanted to include that contained language of “loyalty” to the university administration that, in his view, “put the center’s nonprofit corporate status at risk.”

Before the signing, Nicolau had warned the CPI that, without the transfer of at least $1 million before May 15, the center would have to limit purchases of materials, postpone maintenance and interrupt infrastructure improvement projects at the building in Río Piedras, where researchers conduct studies on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, cancer, water purification technologies and new materials, including lithium batteries.

Agreement Signed After Pressure from Scientists and Students

The agreement was also signed after 29 UPR scientists sent a letter May 1 to the university president and the Governing Board warning that the lack of funding “directly threatened the center’s operation, its long-term sustainability and the institution’s ability to obtain external research funds.” Students from the Medical Sciences Campus also joined the call to action, sending a May 11 letter to the president demanding “immediate attention to an unresolved problem with the Molecular Center,” referring to the lack of an agreement that would allow the funds to be transferred.

“The ineffectiveness in reaching this agreement puts at risk funds for infrastructure and essential purchases for a considerable number of research projects led by faculty and students. (…) The way [Jordán Conde] has handled this situation involving the Molecular Center generated the perception that she is not fully complying with the specific criteria of the profile for the UPR presidency,” reads the letter signed by Christian Rivera Cátala, president of the General Student Council of the Medical Sciences Campus.

The Molecular Center currently houses about 42 researchers and 225 undergraduate and graduate students from the Medical Sciences Campus and the Río Piedras Campus.

The previous agreement expired one day before Jordán Conde assumed the UPR presidency. For six years, that agreement guaranteed $8.5 million in funding for the center’s operations. During the 10 months without a new agreement, the corporation operated at a deficit, the Molecular Center director warned the CPI.

Nicolau said a temporary one-year agreement would allow the center to maintain operational continuity during that period and avoid the suspension of infrastructure projects, purchases and payroll payments, although he acknowledged that the terms of a longer-term agreement, like the previous one, still need to be defined.

The center needs about $2 million a year to operate, while its own revenue this year reached only $700,000. Its operations have been supplemented in part with $3 million in funds awarded in 2022 by the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, known as DDEC in Spanish, to attract researchers and develop projects in cell and gene therapy, as well as with an additional $3 million from the American Rescue Plan Act.

The Molecular Sciences Research Center building began development in 2004 as part of a UPR initiative and, in 2010, was structured as a nonprofit corporation affiliated with the university system, with operational autonomy to reduce its exposure to changes in institutional governance.

This story was made possible through a collaboration between the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo and Open Campus.

This translation was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and clarity.