This initial approval will allow the new facility to begin recruiting students for its first class.

Scheduled to open in September, 2010, the new school will accept 40 students per year once it opens. The school will be located in the Riverside Corporate Center, adjacent to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

The Riverside Corporate Center is a redevelopment project to create a business park on South Jefferson Street at Reserve Avenue.

Officials said that with a subsidy from the state, and using instructors already employed at Tech and Carilion, they can open the private school for physician researchers in 2010.

Startup expenses are estimated to cost from $30 million to $50 million, for a building and operations during the first few years. Advocates will be looking for a state appropriation "in the $10 million, $20 million category," Tech President Charles Steger told the Roanoke Times.

Ed Murphy, chief executive of Carilion, says the organization that accredits medical schools could offer provisional accreditation by late February.

The new school is influenced by Harvard Medical School's Health Sciences and Technology program and the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner College of Medicine. The program will have small class sizes and be dedicated to training physician researchers, according to a Carilion press release.

Training in the principles of conducting research will be integrated in the entire curriculum, beginning in the first year.

In addition to training students to be clinical doctors, the school's goal is to train research physicians who wish to make research part of their medical career, according to a Tech press release.

All students will receive training in research methods, conduct original research and write a thesis as a condition of graduation, in addition to the established medical school curriculum.

To accommodate the expanded graduation requirements, the school will have a five-year curriculum instead of the standard four-year schedule.

According to a Virginia Tech press release, tuition will be comparable to other private medical schools.

Tuition and fees at private medical schools averaged $31,000 in 2002, according to the American Medical Student Association.

"Virginia Tech's nationally ranked research program and our close association with Carilion create a unique opportunity," Steger said.

"We can create a respected medical education program that will improve the region's healthcare, generate economic growth and enhance the overall research profile of the University," Steger said.

According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, medical schools contribute to their communities' economies. When a medical school spends $1, it creates $1.30 in economic activity, according to one study.

The combination of a medical school and research institute on the campus of a major medical center will move Tech closer to its goal of becoming one of the country's top 30 research universities, according to a Tech press release.

Each entity will own 50 percent of the new institution, which would become Virginia's fifth medical school.

The announcement comes at a time when doctors are closing their practices to new patients, yet thousands of young people seeking a career in health care find it difficult to get into medical school.

The University of Virginia School of Medicine receives 4,000 applications yearly for 142 slots in each class, school dean Arthur Garson told The Associated Press.

Similarly, the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg received about 2,300 applications this term.

College president James Wolfe said 1,000 or more appeared capable of completing the program, but there was room to enroll only 159.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, 30 million people are currently affected by physician shortages, including many communities across Virginia.

Critical shortages are expected by 2020, unless medical school enrollment increases by 30 percent.

The new school's first graduates, assuming they will undergo at least two years of post-graduate training, could begin work in 2016 — four years before experts predict a looming doctor shortage to reach the critical stage.