Brain powered

Colorado’s growing status as an innovation center could help jump-start and sustain the state’s economy in coming years, and state research universities and their federal research partners are a major part of that equation. Those schools — from Colorado State University to the University of Colorado system — already account for thousands of direct and indirect jobs, and pump billions of dollars a year into the state economy.

CU’s four campuses alone — CU-Boulder, CU Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus and CU Colorado Springs — contribute more than $6 billion a year to the state economy, through spending on goods and services.…