Sec. 1. P&SL 1865, c. 532, §9-B is enacted to read:

Sec. 9-B.__Graduate school of biomedical sciences.__The Board of Trustees of the University of Maine System shall establish a graduate school of biomedical sciences, referred to in this section as "the school," to educate and train students in basic and clinical fields of biomedicine and the biosciences in accordance with the following:

A.__The Board of Trustees of the University of Maine System shall establish the school in partnership with the Jackson Laboratory, the Maine Medical Center Research Institute and the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, referred to in this section as "partner institutions."

B.__The mission of the school is to administer a graduate education and fellowship program that is open on a competitive basis to its partner institutions, other Maine biomedical research institutions, Maine private education institutions and the University of Maine System.

C.__To attract the most highly qualified graduate students from around the country and around the world, the school shall make every effort to ensure that the stipends offered by the school are sufficient to compete with the fellowship offers of the leading universities in the United States.

D.__The Board of Trustees of the University of Maine System shall administer the school with the aid of an advisory committee composed of one representative from each of the partner institutions; one representative from the University of Southern Maine; one representative from the University of Maine System; and one representative from another research institution or institution of higher education in the State.

E.__The school shall serve as the coordinating entity for interdisciplinary or interinstitutional graduate programs, including but not limited to doctoral programs in functional genomics, the Institute for Molecular Biophysics, cooperative doctoral programs in biochemistry and the Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health.

F.__The school shall work towards developing a college of allied health professions.