The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved the disputed $81.4 million Human Resources System Project Friday and also received news for the first time regarding the Research to Jobs Task Force.

The HRS project was approved after a brief discussion by a 15-2-0 vote, opposed only by Regent Thomas Loftus and non-traditional student Regent Kevin Opgenorth.

Concerns expressed by these two regents included the unclear future of the company UW System hired — Huron Consulting Group — along with the employees that work for them and the cost associated with the project. Huron is currently under review by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting and financial misstatements in 2006, 2007, 2008 and the first part of 2009.

The company presented its case Thursday, at which point several Regents expressed concern about the group’s involvement with the UW System.

“There is a huge risk in not taking this up, but I think that underscores the risks that we are assuming for the future of our campuses and students,” Opgenorth said. “I think by committing ourselves to this project and from the planning aspects looking at $7.5 million a year, with the unknown future, I feel that we may be putting our campuses and students in jeopardy, and that really concerns me.”

Voting to pass the HRS project included only the budget for the first year, which is $33 million.

Recommendations were also made at the regents meeting for seven UW System schools to open Emerging Technology Centers. The centers would help develop new technologies, train students and create jobs, according to a report from the Research to Jobs Task Force.

The centers would focus on new technologies but use existing staff to train students and work along side industries to cooperate in research innovations. Two of the recommended schools — UW-River Falls and UW-Platteville — already have plans to create such centers, according to the report.

“We in the universities need to continue to be a vital engine of economic development. … We need to acknowledge too that much of what we do in this realm — if we are going to be successful at it — is done in partnership with the private sector,” UW System President Kevin Reilly said.

The start-up cost of the new technology centers would initially be $7.7 million, according to the report, but Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, said he believes the benefits to the universities and the state will outweigh the cost, as the centers should be self-sufficient within five years.

“I believe strongly that if we start listening to industry and listening to the companies about the problems that they have, and start addressing the problems that they have, we will have plenty to do at our universities and this will create jobs and also help our industries grow,” Gulbrandsen said

The task force plans to continue efforts fostering research collaboration between universities and industries and Reilly will create a new oversight committee as the planning continues. According to Gulbrandsen, setting up the kind of infrastructure that is needed “is going to be costly, but you aren’t going to do it without that.”