EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) -

Indiana University Medical School-Evansville and its academic consortium partners will meet to sign a letter of intent to jointly expand medical education programs and co-locate at a proposed newmedical schoolcampus in Evansville.

The meeting will beFriday at the Chamber of Commerce of Southwestern Indiana.

Dr. Steven Becker, the director of the Evansville IU Medical School, says they still do not know where this new health and science research facility will be located, but that decision will be made by the IU Board of Trustees, hopefully in February. That's when he estimates they'll also know more about the cost and specific programs.

Part of the plan is to add a 40,000 square foot simulation center equipped with mannequins.

Four universities- USI, UE, IU, and Ivy Tech- have agreed to a shared campus.

Dr. Becker says the goal of the project is to grow residency programs to keep doctors local.

"The idea of this campus is to train the next generation of healthcare professionals in an interprofessional manner so that they all learn together. We train together and we hit the workforce ready for the current challenges in medical care," Dr. Becker said.

Dr. Becker says the plan is to break ground on the site in 2015 and start using the campus in 2017.

More details are set to be announced at themeetingon Friday.Academic leaders will speak about graduate and undergraduate programs that each institution plans to offer at the expanded medical school campus.

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IU and Evansville partners meet to sign letter of intent for new medical school