University of Toledo trustees on Monday authorized an academic affiliation agreement between its medical college and ProMedica that will span five decades and generate millions of dollars for UT.

The board agreed to proceed with the 50-year agreement, to be signed Wednesday by UT President Sharon Gaber; Christopher Cooper, UT’s executive vice president for clinical affairs and dean of the college of medicine and life sciences; and Randy Oostra, ProMedica’s president and chief executive officer.

The ProMedica board of trustees authorized the agreement Friday.

The deal will link the medical college with the nonprofit health system, which has hospitals in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.

It will create an academic medical center at ProMedica Toledo Hospital and Toledo Children’s Hospital, where UT medical students and residents will receive training. ProMedica will amend its mission statement to include academics as a primary purpose.

Officials from both institutions cheered the pact, which they said will create advantages for students, residents, physicians, faculty, and the community. Among the benefits they touted are expanded training opportunities and more research.

“This is really all about delivering exceptional medical training, which is the key to our mission,” said UT board chairman Sharon Speyer.

As part of the agreement, ProMedica will provide the medical college with $250 million for construction and upgrades at ProMedica sites and UT’s Health Science Campus off Arlington Avenue.

The first $100 million is to be spent on projects by 2027.

Officials said there is no specific plan on where the money will be spent, but they are eyeing new buildings on ProMedica’s campus, renovations at the former Medical College of Ohio, and the creation of academic space within new or existing ProMedica clinical buildings.

A six-member governing board, called the Academic Affiliation Operating Group, will oversee the pact’s implementation and consider master planning efforts under way at UT and ProMedica as it approves building projects.

Dr. Cooper will lead that group, which will include three representatives from each organization.

UT will pay ProMedica what officials described as “minimal rent” to cover utilities and other costs to lease new academic space — such as classrooms, lecture halls, research labs, and offices — on ProMedica’s campus.

ProMedica also will make annual academic affiliation payments to UT, starting with $40 million over the first 18 months — $33 million in fiscal year 2016 and $7 million in fiscal year 2017.

UT will receive an additional $12.5 million in fiscal year 2017, $20 million in fiscal year 2018, and $35 million in fiscal year 2019. During an initial transition period, fixed payments will continue to jump until the amount reaches $50 million in fiscal year 2021.

After that, UT will receive payments based on a percentage of ProMedica’s patient-care revenue, which is expected to be at least $50 million annually and, UT officials said, likely to increase as ProMedica grows.

The payments will be used to recruit and retain faculty, support research, and develop new clinical programs, among other expenses.

UT officials said the university sought a partner because its clinical operation and the University of Toledo Medical Center is not large enough to support its academic mission. The medical college “has no viable and sustainable funding source” but is in need of “significant capital over the next decade,” according to documents presented to trustees.

“We needed a bigger opportunity to have clinicals and to be able to bring residents into the community,” Ms. Gaber said.

Many of UT’s roughly 350 third and fourth-year medical students eventually will train at ProMedica sites, as well as a large number of UT’s roughly 300 graduate medical education residents, fellows, and interns.

The two organizations plan to gradually ramp up the university’s presence at ProMedica starting in July, the beginning of the next academic year. Roughly 50 UT medical residents and fellows currently train at ProMedica, and officials expect an additional 20 or so to come on board in the first year.

About 250 residents and fellows are expected to be training at ProMedica by the end of the transition period, around fiscal year 2021.

The first programs to welcome additional residents likely will be in pediatrics, obstetrics, and emergency medicine.

Physicians from Toledo Hospital and Toledo Children’s Hospital will hold faculty appointments at the medical college, an opportunity ProMedica officials said will help with recruitment and retention.

UT faculty physicians will get privileges at those two hospitals plus Flower Hospital.

“This is actually a pivotal point in the entire community and region’s perspective. This is one of these things we think you look back at five to 10 years from now and say, ‘That’s one of the best things we’ve ever done,’” Mr. Oostra said.

UTMC, the former Medical College of Ohio hospital, will continue to operate as an independent hospital owned by the university. The university consulted the Ohio Attorney General’s Office about the deal’s potential anti-trust implications, and attorneys didn’t find areas of concern, said David Morlock, UTMC’s chief executive officer.

Earlier this year, ProMedica lost a legal battle to keep St. Luke’s Hospital after the Federal Trade Commission opposed the merger because it was judged anti-competitive.

The university shared drafts of the ProMedica agreement with the FTC as a courtesy, though it contends the pact does not fall under the agency’s purview, Mr. Morlock said.

Monday’s vote was unanimous among the seven UT trustees present. Trustee Mary Ellen Pisanelli, appointed to the board Aug. 12, did not attend the meeting.

Contact Vanessa McCray at: vmccray@theblade.com or 419-724-6065, or on Twitter @vanmccray.

First Published August 25, 2015, 4:00 a.m.