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By: Bailey McCann, Private Equity Strategies

Scholars from the Universities of Chicago, Oxford, North Carolina and Virginia have come together to launch the Private Equity Research Consortium (PERC). The goal of the consortium will be to bring together scholars and industry professionals to improve data on and understanding of private equity.

In our January issue, we discussed similar, albeit single school efforts underway at Harvard Business School and the London Business School. Professors at both institutions lead their own research institutions on private equity, although it is unclear if they will work with the PERC or just alongside them.

PERC will be housed at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School. Funding for the corporation was provided by the UAI Foundation, a non-profit foundation devoted to supporting research in finance.

"Over the last two decades, private equity has grown to become an important part of the investment landscape, yet little is known about the industry. Historically, researchers who want to study private equity confront a major barrier: high-quality data," said Brown, Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Scholar and professor of finance at UNC Kenan-Flagler. "Our goal is to help remove that barrier." Portfolio management software company Burgiss, has also partnered with the consortium to provide support for data and research. James Bachman, Burgiss, director, will be the only private sector member of the five person advisory board.

Other board members include - Gregory W. Brown, University of North Carolina; Robert Harris, PERC director and University of Virginia; Tim Jenkinson, Oxford University, and Steven Kaplan, University of Chicago.

Qualified applicants may also request access to the data provided through the consortium. PERC will also be holding a conference this November at UNC-Chapel Hill.