Kansas City, Mo. ? The University of Missouri Board of Curators, meeting Thursday in Kansas City, approved an operating budget of $855 million for the four-campus system of more than 60,000 students and a statewide outreach and extension service.

The budget includes a $12 million boost in state appropriations plus a $35 million increase provided by a 7.5 percent systemwide tuition increase.

System President Elson Floyd said he was grateful to Missouri legislators for increasing the system’s budget.

Floyd also presented a strategic plan that emphasizes improved student access, higher-quality research leading to more international recognition and increased awareness of ethnic diversity when recruiting students, professors and staff members.

The curators began the day Thursday with an orientation session at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, a nonprofit institute with 18 high-powered research groups and 225 employees that’s across the street from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Stowers representatives awed the curators and other university representatives with the institute’s $1.7 billion endowment and the quality of international awards and recognition received in the few years the institute has been open.

Stowers representatives also discussed a proposed agreement between its for-profit subsidiary, BioMed Valley Discoveries Inc., UMKC and Kansas University.

BioMed Valley was established to patent, develop and market the discoveries of the nonprofit Stowers Institute and prospective partners.

Under the proposed agreement, UMKC and KU would attract and keep the “very best scientists” approved by a national board of five scientists chosen by BioMed Valley Corp., the nonprofit parent organization of BioMed Valley Discoveries.

That board also would review and approve the “quality” of the university scientists’ research every year. The university scientists’ discoveries all would be transferred to BioMed Valley Discoveries for commercialization.

KU and UMKC would, in return, get BioMed Valley money to support research on basic cell and molecular biology.