In the story of the park's beginning and its growth are two lessons:

Bold, persistent leadership and public-private collaboration were required.

It wasn't enough to offer a research park. Administrators had to meet the needs of industry and sell the park in a competitive marketplace.

Those are lessons the Madison region should continue to apply.

University Research Park is observing the 25th anniversary of the Board of Regents' authorization to develop university farmland along Mineral Point Road into a research park. The occasion is an opportunity to reflect not only on what the park has meant to the region but also on the challenges the area faces in today's economy.

The idea for a park developed by the university to cater to research-oriented businesses emerged in the early 1960s. A university committee recommended that the university join with industry to "explore the advantages of having its new or expanded research and development activities located in a research park . . . so that there could be greater contact between applied and fundamental research."

But the idea met resistance from university personnel and others who wanted to maintain an arm's length distance between UW-Madison and the private sector.

Leadership was required to break through the campus resistance as well as a more general ambivalence over whether the Madison area should compete aggressively for private-sector development to go along with its campus and government culture.

Among those early leaders trumpeting the benefits of a research park was Wisconsin State Journal Editor Bob Spiegel, who frequently used a weekly column to drum up support.

Spiegel and Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce President Bob Brennan organized a trip for community leaders to view the university-related Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.

The groundwork began to yield results when Irving Shain became UW-Madison chancellor. Under Shain's leadership, UW-Madison began in earnest to plan and to negotiate with the city for approvals.

Shain's special assistant, Wayne McGown, became the first University Research Park director.

Although the birth of University Research Park was a momentous event, the park did not take off with a bang. By 1987 Gov. Tommy Thompson was worried. "I feel the project should be farther along than it is," he said.

Administrators needed to make the park more business friendly with opportunities to lease space or buy land and construct buildings-to-suit. And they needed to reach out and sell the park's advantages.

The adoption of a more proactive approach paid off. The park is now home to more than 100 businesses employing 4,000 people.

Plans call for a second phase to open at Junction Road and Highway M on Madison's Far West Side in 2010.

University Research Park has become one of the most valuable assets on a long list that makes the Madison region one of the Midwest's most attractive places to live and to locate a business.

But the lesson of the park's history is that it's not enough to have assets. To compete in the global market, the region must summon the leadership to marshal the assets and proactively meet challenges.

The same kind of leadership that assembled the public-private collaboration that made University Research Park a success is required to address a range of problems the Madison area now confronts -- from transportation to energy to education. Let's build on the park's momentum to keep the region moving forward.