The University of Texas, Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley have agreed to a 5-year partnerships with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) , a graduate level research university being built in Saudi Arabia. Each university will receive about $25-billion for their assistance to the Saudi university.

The new KAUST University is scheduled to be open next year.

The Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at UT, the Mechanical Engineering Department at Cal-Berkeley, and the Computer Science Department and Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford will select faculty and develop the curriculum for the new university.

In exchange for their assistance, each American university will receive a $10-million gift, $10 million for research on their home campus, and $5 million for research on KAUST’s campus, plus additional administrative costs.

The new school is an effort to help the Persian Gulf region become a more diversified economy.