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Suggested Citation:"Conclusion." Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Science and Technology in the Academic Enterprise: Status, Trends, and Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1468.
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Page 27

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CONCLUSION 27 Conclusion At the dawn of the 1990s, the United States is confronted with an academic research enterprise that shows the strains of rapid, dynamic growth and the consequences of its own success. In the last four decades, the nation has produced an academic research capability that is vastly larger and more decentralized than could have been foreseen by the most visionary policy-makers at the end of World War Two. The extraordinary success of the enterprise invites high ambitions for U.S. universities and colleges during the next decade. Powerful forces—within and without the university community—are generating pressures to further expand the role of academic research and broaden the institutional and geographic research base. By pressing for an expansion of frontier research, as well as greater geographic diversity, the nation now faces decisions of how, to whom, to what extent, and for what purposes to allot limited resources. Sustaining the quality of current research institutions and programs will require increased financial and human resources, as well as organizational innovation. Policy- makers in government, industry, and universities will be forced to find an optimal balance among these competing demands and make pivotal investment and human-resource decisions that will profoundly influence the character and role of universities during the next century. Maintaining the pre-eminence of the academic research enterprise will necessitate reconsidering the major premises upon which it was established. Each university and college faces a range of choices, from accepting the challenge of an expanded mission to attempting to maintain its traditional role. For the enterprise as a whole, new strategies for its continued vitality must be considered—strategies far different from those employed by the research community, university administrators, and research sponsors in previous decades. Developing these strategies will test the nation's ingenuity and resourcefulness. The complexity of the issues, and the relationships among them, will require a comprehensive process and must involve all who hold a stake in the future of academic research.

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Science and Technology in the Academic Enterprise: Status, Trends, and Issues Get This Book
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The U.S. academic research enterprise is entering a new era characterized by remarkable opportunities and increased strain. This two-part volume integrates the experiential knowledge of group members with quantitative data analyses in order to examine the status of scientific and technological research in academic settings. Part One reviews the status of the current research enterprise, emerging trends affecting it, and issues central to its future. Part Two is an overview of the enterprise and describes long-term trends in financial and human resources. This new book will be useful in stimulating policy discussions—especially among individuals and organizations that fund or perform academic research.

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