The U.S. Department of Energy announced this morning that it had chosen a management team led by the University of Chicago and a consortium of 90 universities to run the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, near Chicago. The consortium, the Universities Research Association, has operated the laboratory, which houses the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, since the lab opened, in 1967.

The Energy Department has been running its first competitions ever to award management contracts for its national laboratories. There were apparently no other bidders for the five-year contract for Fermilab, the Chicago Tribune reported. The University of Chicago also won a contract this year to continue managing the Argonne National Laboratory, located 20 miles from Fermilab.