Fateful Choices The Future of the U.S. Academic Research Enterprise (1992) / Chapter Skim
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Part Two: Achieving the Vision
Part Two: Achieving the Vision
Pages 7-50
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PART TWO Achieving the Vision
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In the view of the working group, two processes need to begin simultaneously. First, universities and research sponsors need to take immediate, concrete steps to "put their houses in order." The working group believes that decisionmakers at the highest levels need to set overall national research priorities with input from the university and research communities.
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ties are not established, there und be increasing confusion about and less than optima' invest ments infrontier research and in research infrastructure of vital importance to the nation. SETTING PRIORITIES It will be necessary in the coming decades to set national priorities for the support and conduct of science and engineering research.
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Government leaders must set broad national priorities for research in consultation with the individual scientific and engineering disciplines, the larger scientific community, academic institutions, and industry.3 Such abroad-basedprocess for settingpriorities needs to address not only the relative importance of various research projects and programs, but also the funding needs for facilities, instrumentation, educa .
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Through their support for research infrastructure and the indirect costs of research, non-federal sectors now play a much more significant role in setting the research agenda in the United States than they have in the past three decades. Ensuring that the essential needs of the enterprise are met within this changing environment requires more explicit focus on the division of federal, state, and university responsibilities in fund ing academic research.
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The most significant trend in university funding during this time was the willingness of public universities especially institutions aspiring to develop a stronger research base to utilize their own resources to cover part of the indirect costs of externally sponsored research. Although the overall share of academic research funds contributed by state governments held steady at 8 percent, several states greatly increased their spending for academic research.
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Financial data are expressed in 1988 constant dollars to reflect real long-term growth trends. DEFINITION OF TERMS: Academic R&D expenditures include current-fund expenditures within higher education institutions for all research and development activities that are separately budgeted and accounted for.
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Own Funds include institutional funds for separately budgeted research and development, cost-sharing, and under-recovery of indirect costs. They are derived from (1)
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Own Funds include institutional funds for separately budgeted research and development, cost-sharing, and under-recovery of indirect costs. They are derived from (1)
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Federal funds include expenditures for academic research equipment with monies from grants and contracts for academic R&D (including direct and reimbursed indirect costs) by agencies ofthe federal government; excludes expenditures for FFRDC facilities.
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Federal funds include expenditures for academic science and engineering facilities with moneys from federal agency contracts in grants. Other sources include state and local governments, the institutions themselves, industry, and other non-profit organizations.
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For example, multi-disciplinary research teams have become more common as more complex topics emerge in science and technology. Larger-size research teams are increasingly evident, as well.
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In the years ahead, multi-disciplinary research teams will become more common as more complex topics emerge in science and technology. Universities will need to hire new research staff or establish new multi-departmental centers to provide support for these teams.
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Finally, research institutions may want to eliminate or redirect independent research centers or university-based federal laboratories that have lost their vitality or purpose. The more research institutions depend on these kinds of non-departmental arrangements for conducting research, the more the quality of their output will need to be monitored.
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ADAPTING TO SOCIETAL CHANGE Universities, government agencies, and professional scientific and engineering organizations will need to consider the implications of societal and demographic change for the nation's research enterprise. Societal and demographic changes occurring in the United States are increasingly reflected within the research enterprise.
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These include the maintenance of quality through peer review, the unrestricted flow of scientific information, replication of research results, and publication in refereed journals. REVITALIZING EDUCATION In the future, research institutions will need to expend considerable effort to maintain or enhance the quality of science and engineering education at the undergraduate, graduate, and increasingly, at the pre-college level.
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Furthermore, public support of institutions of higher education is strongly linked to public perceptions of the quality of the undergraduate teaching mission. Academic research institutions face a dilemma as they try to improve their undergraduate programs.
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Achieving the Vision 25 Four Zarge-scaleforces the pace and nature of research, economic conditions, political interests, and the international context mill have important and powerful ejects on the enterprise and,for the most part, are outside the direct control of those who conduct, fund, and oversee research in institutions of higher learning. The rapidly grounug array of new scientific and technological opportunities anal challenges Is inexorably pushing the enterpnse toward expansion.
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3. Consid~emng long-term consequences · research capacity · response to new opportunities · human and financial resources organization of decisionmaking 4.
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Larger and more multi-disciplinary research teams will be necessary for addressing many topics in science and technology. It is not clear whether these teams will be located most appropriately atlarge institutions with broad-based researchportfolios, or among groups of smaller, more narrowly focused research institutions.
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political process will exert a major influence on both the size of the overall research enterprise and its structure. The level and allocation of resources devoted to university-based research will be determined by political decisions made at the local, state, and national levels.
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The growth in leveraged local funding for research programs has also created research capacity at scores of universities previously devoted largely to teaching. International Context In the first three decades following World War II, the United States provided most of the research infrastructure equipment and facilitiesfor its own research requirements in academia, industry and government laboratories.
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In many other countries, by contrast, frontier basic research in targeted fields is performed largely in government or industry laboratories, which also conduct a substantial amount of applied, proprietary research. There is a danger that, in response to growing international economic competition, the results of much foreign-based research may not be promptly or freely released to the public.
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aca SIZE OF TlIE ENTERPRISE An expanded academic research enterprise could result from strong growth in national economic wealth, from political decisions to increase public investments in academic research to achieve social goals , or from political decisions to shift national basic research funding toward academic institutions. Rising international research competition could result in increased financial support to maintain U.s.
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A more diversified academic research enterprise could result fromjudgmerlts that institutions that concentrate their human and financial resources within fewer areas of research strength would be best able to address emerging research opportunities. Depending upon funding allocation methods, fluctuating or rapidly shifting national investments in research could, over time, promote institutions with narrower research portfolios.
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Diversified Expansion: larger enterprise distributed across a greater number of more narrowly focused research institutions. Steady-State Scenarios Consolidation: current-size enterprise increasingly concentratedwithin universities with broad research portfolios.
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FIGURE 6 Scenariosfor the 21st Century LARGER t Lo En Q Z STEADY LO STATE _ o llJ en ~ ~ SMALLER STRUCTURE OF ENTERPRISE MORE CURRENT MORE CONCENTRATED ~- CONFIGURATION - ~DIVERSIFIED GENERAL INTEGRATED EXPANSION DIVERSIFI ED EXPANSION EXPANSION 1 1 ~ CONSOLIDATION ~ 1 (STATUS QUO) t ` ~1 ~ ~1 dI' 1 l CONCENTRATION I I GENERAL CONTRACTION 34 1 | DISPERSION | DECENTRALIZATION Fateful Choices
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support of research to maintain international standing. DIVERSIFIED EXPANSION A larger enterprise, in both numbers of researchers and active departments, distributed across a greater number of institutions with more narrowly focused research portfolios.
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DISPERSION An enterprise of the current size, in both numbers of researchers and active departments, distributed across a greater number of more narrowly focused research .
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Economic Conditions: A weakened national economy no longer is able to support an enterprise ofthe current size. Political Interests: Independent ofthe economic climate, a political decision is made to shift national resources away from research to other nationalneeds.
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Down sizing the enterprise would mean suwendenug many ongoing research areas in favor of opportunities of paramount national importance. Maintaining a steady-state enterprise would barely sustain the current national research capacity.
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This requirement is the same for all growth scenarios, regardless of whether the Achieving the Vision 39 A shift toward a more concentrated research enterprise would, in genera,, aIlomfor greater national decentralization of decisionmaking to universities and their academic departments. A shift towards a more diversified academic research enterprise would encourage research institutions tofocus their resources un thin areas of research strength and achieve the politicaigoal of a broader institutional and geographic distribution of the nation's research capacity.
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(See Figure 8, page 41.) The United States has two primary sources for enlarging the pool of available research expertise.
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However, reliance on this source is risky. As described earlier, other countries, including many developing nations, are creating their own research systems that will compete directly with the United States for this pool of talent.
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If federal laboratories were to assume increased responsibility for costly research facilities and expand access to these facilities by university researchers, a growing academic research enterprise would be more possible. On the other hand, should federal laboratories more actively compete with academic institutions for basic research funding, growth in the academic sector may be more difficult.
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In many instances, sophisticated and more expensive research equipmentis needed. Telecommunications networks allow widely dispersed research personnel to share data, to collaborate effectively, and to use one-of-a-kind research instrumentation.
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Unlike the requirements for funding, human resources, decisionmaking, and the use of telecommunications technology, however, the openness of the global research system depends upon decisions made within many nations. Evaluating Specific Policy Proposals Policymakers must carefully consider the consistency and efficacy of policy proposals affecting human and financial resources, locus of decisionmaking, communication infrastructure, and openness ofthe global research system.
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Inconsistent policies, programs, and resource commitments will lead to chaotic conditions and will have a potentially disastrous effect on the quality of academic research in this country. Achieving the Vision 45
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· human resources · financial resources · locus of decisionmaking · communications infrastructure · openness of global research system 3. What are the implications for near-term decisionmaking7 · setting priorities intersectoral Finding responsibilities institutional organization and management adapting to societal change institutional educational mission 46 FateSul Choices
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Without clearer priority-setting, there will be increasing confusion about and less than optimal investments in frontier research and in the research infrastructure of vital importance to the nation. Funding Responsibilities.
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The choice ahead is whether to concentrate research programs within largescale research universities, retain the current configuration, or diversif; the enterprise across more narrowly focused research insi~tunons. The first option is to enhance "world class" U.S.
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For further discussion, see Government-University-IndustryResearch Roundtable Perspectives on Financing Academic Research Facilities: A Resourcefor Policy Formulation, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, October 1989.
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