photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod speaks at the FBI and KU Cybersecurity Conference on April 4, 2025.

With its new electric vehicle battery plant now open in De Soto, University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod hopes Panasonic’s next Kansas project is one that will land on the KU campus.

Girod told the Journal-World on Monday that KU continues to be in discussions with Panasonic officials about creating a research center at Innovation Park, which is the public-private development underway on KU’s West Campus.

Girod said KU is working on a refined memorandum of understanding with Panasonic that could lead to Panasonic taking space in a new multi-tenant building that KU currently is designing for the West Campus Innovation Park, which is northwest of the intersection of 23rd and Iowa streets.

Girod and other university leaders travelled to Japan to meet with top Panasonic officials more than a year ago. KU and the company signed an MOU to work on ways for KU research to benefit Panasonic’s efforts, and now that agreement is being further refined.

“We have some great strengths in material research, which is relevant to the work they do here,” Girod told the Journal-World while attending Pansonic’s grand opening celebration on Monday.

Girod said he is “hopeful” that Panasonic ends up with a spot in KU’s developing Innovation Park. KU currently is in the design phase of a new national security research center, which the university won a $22 million federal grant to develop. While that center will focus on cybersecurity and other similar threats, Girod has long said the university also would add space to the project if a premier private tenant had a need for on-campus research space.

He said that is the basic concept Panasonic has expressed an interest in, with a desire to have Panasonic officials close to both researchers and graduate students at KU.

Girod said no deal has been reached with Panasonic, but he said he expects discussions will advance to new stages now that Panasonic has accomplished its big opening milestone in De Soto.

Girod said the De Soto project also serves as a good reminder that KU has about 160 acres of land deeded to it in the same business park that now houses the Panasonic facility. Both KU and Kansas State received land as part of the process that transferred ownership of the former U.S. Army ammunition plant to various entities several years ago.

While the KU property may still need some remediation work, Girod said KU likely will start giving more serious thought to how the university could use that property in collaboration with new ventures that are attracted to the area.