Associated Universities is a nonprofit science management corporation that operates the National Radio Astronomy Observatory under a Cooperative Agreement with the National Science Foundation. Corporate headquarters are located in Washington, DC. The company was established in 1946 as an educational institution dedicated to research, development and education in the physical, biological and engineering sciences. It was granted an absolute charter by the Board of Regents of the State University of New York Education Department. It was envisioned that AUI would create facilities and laboratories so complex as to be outside the scope of a single university. These facilities were to be made available on a competitive basis to all qualified scientists and resident scientific staff. Nine northeastern universities joined in sponsoring AUI in 1946 including Columbia, Cornell, Harvard and Yale. AUI has taken on a broad national character with a diversified Board of Trustees from universities and other institutions across the country.