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Executive Summary
Keynote
Address
Luis M. Proenza
President, University of Akron
- There are seismic rumbles of change, yet scientists
are embroiled in a climate of pessimism, believing research cannot
be done another way.
- Worldwide, Research & Development is
a $410 billion industry, 90% of which is dominated by 7 countries
with the U.S. claiming 44%. Of the $180 billion in U.S. market
share, 60% is derived from industry. 13% is claimed by academia,
and this money is increasingly distributed among a larger number
of colleges and universities.
- It is useful for an institution to look carefully
at its research "portfolio" and to assess its academic
research competitiveness. It is important to look at clusters
of strength in the institution and to pinpoint emerging opportunities.
Through focus and differentiation institutions gain strength.
No university can be truly comprehensive today.
- There is no single model to define a research
university.
- The concept of "strategic intent"
is valuable because it asks you to state what you want to be in
a powerful and ambitious way. See the book Competing for the Future
by Garn Hamel and C.K. Prahalad.
- There are many models of mergers and coalitions
in academia. In the early part of the 20th century, many normal
schools became parts of large universities. Just this year, Radcliff
merged in to Harvard. In 1969, Indiana University's school of
medicine and Purdue's school of engineering, among other programs,
formed a consortia based at a single campus in Indianapolis. In
Massachusetts, five institutions have formed a consortia so that
students from any of the schools may enroll at the other schools
for no extra charge.
- In terms of university-industry cooperation,
Purdue and Caterpillar have a productive relationship that includes
exchange of personnel and training of students. This is accomplished
through an overarching agreement that does not require negotiation
for individual projects.
- Tim Ferguson in Forbes, May 31, 1999 described
the nature of the change in the U.S. economy: "[in the past]
proximity to water or rail mattered a lot. Today, proximity to
a university campus matters a lot."
- We can expect research universities to lead
efforts that involve a "cluster made out of brainpower."
For example, Georgia began positioning itself as the economic
New South in the late 1960's when Governor Busbee added 400 faculty
positions at just one university, followed by R & D investments
under Governor Harris in 1984 which resulted in the Georgia Research
Alliance under Governor Miller. In just six years, the Alliance
has attracted 22 eminent scholars to Georgia; accelerated growth
in intellectual properties; encouraged business-friendly technology
transfer systems; and between 1990 and 1997 increased sponsored
research at Georgia's universities from $400 million to more than
$700 million.
Response to the Keynote Address
Robert E. Barnhill,
Vice Chancellor for Research and Public Service
University of Kansas
- Strategic intent goes beyond strategic planning;
it extends to what is barely possible, such as Kennedy's vision
of our landing on the moon.
- Research enhancement can lift the entire institution.
As an example, the University of Arizona on the eve of Sputnik
had only 2 doctoral programs in arts and sciences and less than
$1 million in separately budgeted research. Today it ranks in
the top 10 public universities in research funding. In 1959, President
Harvill provided leadership and focus by directing research toward
areas in which Arizona possessed some natural advantage. In two
years, the centers for astronomy and anthropology arose and in
1966 became the first departments to receive national recognition
in reputational rankings.
- Lester Thurow, a professor at MIT, has said
that "a successful knowledge-based economy requires large
public investments in education, infrastructure, and research
and development." He also stresses that the rates of return
on Research and Development are far greater in the public arena,
with benefits accrued for the whole society.
- A principal reason that academic performance
measures are important is that we will become what we decide to
measure. We should select and promote measures that reflect the
values we believe are important.
- At the June 1999 NASULGC CRPGE forum, a view
emerged that rankings are valid for perhaps the top 20 universities,
but for universities in the middle, relatively small changes in
the data or the criteria can produce dramatic differences in the
rankings.
- Graham and Diamond in their book The Rise
of American Research Universities suggest that reputational rankings
are an artifact of the past. In the Knowledge Age there are no
adequate peer reviews for the multitude of research universities
where interdisciplinary work is flourishing. They suggest two
main categories (federal research obligations & journal publications)
with three sub-categories (publications in top-rated sciences
& top-rated social science journals and top awards in the
humanities). They suggest a per faculty capita approach, as opposed
to the National Research Council graduate study reputational rankings
that use aggregate numbers and therefore favor large departments.
At the June NASULGC forum Graham also suggested these criteria:
journal citation density, top-journal approach, research funding
and outcome measures for doctoral graduates such as first jobs
taken after graduation.
- The National Science Foundation counts only
science and engineering in its report. In compiling its data,
Kansas added the excluded disciplines and expenditures from training
grants. These adjusted totals will be used by Kansas to measure
research performance in the future.
Panel of Researchers
Bikram S. Gill, Wheat
Genetics Resource Center, Kansas State University
George S. Wilson, Chemistry/Pharmaceutical
Chemistry, University University of Kansas
- The secrets of collaboration distilled from
studies of successful teams are: select the right people; have
a clear mission; provide adequate resources; communicate accomplishments;
inculcate a strong belief in the project and the urgency to complete
it before anyone else. In graduate education, the advantages are:
access to unique experts and resources; an opportunity for students
to try their wings; access to different perspectives on a research
problem; experience in managing collaboration; exposure to different
research environments; and experience communicating and problem
solving. Barriers to success can involve: who is in control; who
gets the credit; intellectual property issues; conflicts in management
style; ineffective communication; lack of definition of the experimental
plan.
- An example of collaboration is the Wheat Genetics
Resource Center which was established at Kansas State University
(K-State) in the 1980's. Its purpose is to conserve genetic resources
of wheat, promoting its utilization in wheat improvement through
basic and applied research, and it also sponsors the training
of students and visiting scientists. This is a successful center
because it is investigator-driven; it nurtures grassroots participation
and shared vision with producers, consumers, administrators and
legislators.
- A proposed collaborative project could be
developed by K-State and the University of Kansas (KU) to conserve
native prairie in one of the last remnants of contiguous prairie
in the nation. This could be called the Prairie Genetics Conservation
Center. It could draw on the Konza Prairie/Agronomy group at K-State
for ecological and range management research, the Wheat Genetics
Resource Center, and the KU scientists for conservation and genetics
research. This center could work to conserve and enhance prairie
genetics here and abroad.
Panel of Vice Chancellors for Research
Jack O. Burns, Vice
Provost, University of Missouri - Columbia
P. B. Swan, Vice Provost, Iowa State University
R. W. Trewyn, Vice Provost, Kansas State
University
- By following the model by which American businesses
have transformed successfully in the 1990's, universities will
also successfully adapt and change. Centers and institutes create
flexibility in a "vertical" institution. Universities
must listen to the employers of students-an often overlooked "customer"
of education. Employers want students who can solve real-world
problems in teams.
- Kansas State University has a new graduate
certificate program that is geared toward the part-time student
and the student who wants the flexibility of coursework in an
additional area, but is concurrently enrolled full-time in another
degree program. The military graduate student recruitment program
capitalizes on K-State's strengths in food safety, environmental
remediation, etc.-military concerns in the next century. The University
has also removed impediments to the transfer of technology from
university research labs to the private sector, and has developed
procedures that allow faculty to participate in federal grant
awards that fund innovative business start-ups.
- The University of Missouri is focusing on
its regional strengths and opportunities to excel through a four-year
funding package allocated by the General Assembly of Missouri.
The goals of Mission Enhancement are to: increase research productivity
and extramural funding; achieve national prominence and improve
program rankings in selected academic areas; improve graduate
program quality; enhance service to the state of Missouri; and
improve undergraduate program quality with enhanced undergraduate
research experiences and exposure to more senior faculty in the
classroom. In the first full year, 125 new faculty positions have
been approved and four broad areas of academic enhancement have
been chosen: Life Sciences, Connections, Quality of Life, and
Global Information Access. Global Information Access will include
creation of a new multi-disciplinary program in electronic commerce
that involves the faculty from business, law, journalism, political
science and apparel management.
- The Heartland Research Consortium is an example
of multi-institutional collaboration with a focused strategy.
It involves 10 Midwestern research universities that will launch
an international conference on Genetically-Modified Organisms
in fall 2000 with co-sponsorship by the American Association for
the Advancement of Science. Strategic alliances between universities
in the heartland enable everyone to achieve a competitive advantage
by leveraging resources.
- Public universities must make their knowledge
and expertise available; when new knowledge leads to a potentially
useful product or to a better manufacturing process, it is developed
and protected as intellectual property so it can be commercialized
and made available to the public. Universities invest in intellectual
property programs to: facilitate collaboration, meet federal requirements
(Bayh-Dole Act), protect the value of the research and the rights
of the inventors, and protect the interests of public investors
in the university. Only a few universities make money and this
is momentary. The best time to agree on the basis for management
is when the contract is being written on the research, even if
the outcome of the research is uncertain.
Panel of Researchers
Roberta Johnson,
Hall Center for Humanities, University of Kansas
Marilyn Stokstad, Art History, University
of Kansas
Don Steeples, Geophysics, University
of Kansas
- Cross-disciplinary marriage rarely occurs
between equals. It may be an elephant and rabbit stew. Rather
than advocate blendings, flavorings could make a valuable difference
in the humanities scholar's project or the way he/she conducts
career-long research. Interactions between people from different
fields is worth promoting. The Hall Center for the Humanities
provides a venue for faculty from across campus and for off-campus
people to come together to share current research and to dialogue.
It is a challenge for humanities faculty to meet scientists and
medical professionals, especially when the work is carried out
in Kansas City. A Four-State Institute for Ethics could address
ethical issues in medicine and other areas of human endeavor and
could lead to major break-throughs on issues of contemporary debate.
- Scholars know how to share information rapidly
with those who want to know, but the important question is how
to communicate with a wider audience. We cannot function without
public support. Because the academic community relies on in-group-speak
for scholarly communication, and media-types for external communication,
public response wanes. Combining images and words is effective
for rapid, accurate dissemination of information. Visual images
are long lasting. Bright and creative people in the arts and humanities
can be communicators for the university.
- There are many ways of doing science. Jack
Oliver defined two valuable methods: science by synthesis and
science by serendipity. He states that "no one style of doing
science is superior or should be exclusive." Funding from
the National Science Foundation is difficult to obtain unless
a proposal has an explicit, testable hypothesis. Yet, when scientists
follow the scientific method, they may become married to the hypothesis,
making it difficult to admit a failed experiment or causing them
to follow a research track far longer than it is valuable. Endowed
research funding can enable scientists to explore high-risk research
that may result in valuable breakthroughs.
Eliminating the Scholarly Communication
Crisis
David E. Shulenburger,
Provost, University of Kansas
- We have experienced ten years of annual compounded
increases in the price of scholarly journals in excess of 10%,
especially in science, technology and medicine. To purchase the
same proportion of published serials and monographs as a decade
ago, the University of Kansas acquisitions budget would have had
to increase by 250%. Instead, it increased only about 50%. Because
this situation reduces the availability of information to scholars,
it threatens to reduce the universities' contribution to both
basic and applied research.
- We must find a way to make information permanently
accessible to scholars and the public in a useful fashion. Solutions
must deal with ultimate ownership of scholarly communication,
i.e., copyright, and only in that instance will we have found
a solution.
- I propose that when a manuscript is prepared
by a U.S. faculty member and is accepted for publication by a
scholarly journal, a portion of the copyright of that manuscript
shall be retained for inclusion in a single, publicly accessible
repository, after a specified time following publication in the
journal. Only the exclusive right to journal publication of the
manuscript would pass to the journal and the author would retain
the right to have the manuscript included in the National Electronic
Article Repository (NEAR) 90 days after it appears in the journal.
NEAR would index manuscripts by author, title, subject and name
of the journal and see to it that articles are permanently archived.
NEAR could be funded by universities through "page charges"
per article included, by federal appropriation, by a small charge
levied on each user upon accessing articles, or by a combination
of these methods. Since all scholarly journal articles would pass
into the public domain in 90 days, individuals, libraries, agencies
and businesses would choose to subscribe only to those journals
where timely access justified the cost. The amount by which prices
fall will vary inversely with the rate at which the value of the
information contained in the journal deteriorates over time.
Panel of Deans and Chairs
Roger A. Sunde, Chair,
Nutritional Sciences, University of Missouri - Columbia
Marc A. Johnson, Dean of Agriculture,
Kansas State University
Sally Frost Mason, Dean of Liberal
Arts and Sciences, University of Kansas
Andrew J. Blanchard, Director of Research,
Engineering, University of Missouri - Columbia
- Universities cannot rely solely on direct
allocations of state and federal resources for growth. In states
with smaller university scientific infrastructural investments,
collaboration may be essential to create critical mass and to
be competitive nationally. We must recognize that other institutions
are better at some things while our own is better at others, and
when we join forces, both prosper.
- Kansas State University participates in the
Great Plains Cereals Biotechnology Consortium with the University
of Nebraska, Oklahoma State and the Nobel Foundation in Oklahoma.
Together, these institutions have 80 faculty who competitively
seek grants as one entity. This has enabled the development of
relationships overseas and has strengthened research programs
that may be able to reduce the $700 million annual loss of potential
grain yield in Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska-an issue that is
fundamental to the world's food supply.
- Research centers can reach across departments,
colleges, universities, states, and nations to gather together
talented faculty. Centers are designed to be less bureaucratic
and tend to enhance faculty fulfillment while avoiding the question
of changing departmental structures. Substantial seed money results
in quick organization and a quick product, and enables the preliminary
work for building excellent proposals.
- The University of Kansas has received several
Department of Education Title VI grants for National Resource
Centers (NRC's). Three NRC's have been in existence for over a
decade: Russian and East European Studies, Latin American Studies,
and East Asian Studies. Humanists and social scientists at these
centers have created an excellent collaborative environment where
faculty participate in genuine multi-disciplinary work and are
rewarded with promotion, tenure, merit salary, travel, etc.
- Deans can be instrumental in facilitating
multi-disciplinary efforts by ensuring that the college-level
promotion and tenure committee gives full credit for the work
done by faculty who are appointed jointly. A dean is also instrumental
in committing new faculty lines, start-up monies and matching
dollars for major equipment and infrastructure.
- The Plant Biotechnology Center at K-State
is an example of collaboration. It was established with 18 scientists
and $250,000 in seed money. The Center now has attracted scientists
from many departments and colleges. Even though K-State had a
long relationship with the International Rice Research Institute,
once the Plant Biotechnology Center was established, IRRI proposed
a formal memorandum of understanding to solidify the relationship
and enable placement of one IRRI scientist at K-State as an adjunct
faculty and one of K-State's faculty at IRRI as an adjunct scientist.
- The team-based approach to multi-disciplinary
research is viable and worth the effort. At the University of
Missouri it was used to take advantage of the explosion of new
molecular biology knowledge and new biotechnology tools with the
result that "Food for the 21st Century" is making the
University more competitive.
- Robbins and Finley describe in their book
why teams don't work. Teams may be created for the wrong reasons.
It works well if there is a short-term, solvable problem requiring
effort from several diverse components of the organization. The
organization may not committed to the team idea. It takes vision
and courage by the administration to set and support goals and
vision. The reward structure for team members must make them feel
safe to do their team jobs; performance expectations and reward
must be aligned with the goals. A big concern is the expansion
of non-productive paperwork, meetings and reports intruding on
the time that team members have for team-based responsibilities.
Reduction of activities that do not contribute to productivity
of an institution is a way to empower multi-disciplinary teams.
The #1 reason teams fail is when they are not given the tools
to do the task.
- It does not benefit academia to be isolated
from the world especially when the value of information is driven
not by the individuals who create its content, but rather by those
who market the content. Academics must respond to a changed market.
The new academic culture will succeed by its exceptional ability
to recognize market needs and provide innovative solutions to
market-driven problems through a customized approach. It will
also be effective in taking on a brokering role, creating an interface
between the private side, government, and various academic sectors,
accessing a broad variety of complex capabilities and thinking
processes that characteristically are not integrated.
Panel of Researchers / Administrators
Kim A. Wilcox, Executive
Director, Kansas Board of Regents
Charlotte R. Bronson, Plant Pathology,
Iowa State University
Bruce Harmon, Ames Laboratory, Iowa State
University
- The Regents, Kansas legislators, and the
public at large, need a context in which to appreciate the value
of research. Undergraduate education is focused on giving students
baseballs-facts-without demonstrating the thrill of the catch.
Faculty spend far too much time arguing about and putting in place
the information that all students in a discipline must have, rather
than making sure students understand the heart of research.
- Faculty are asked to perform services for
the greater good of the university, including projects that link
universities in research. This often involves a great deal of
work with little credit. For example, a faculty member may write
the grant, disburse the funds to everyone in the multi-university
project, arrange meetings and organize the effort to write the
paper-and then be listed as the 18th author. To encourage cross-university
linkages, administrators must think of ways to reward faculty,
or at the very least, not penalize them. For example, the administration
might provide clerical assistance; award half a research assistantship
for each year of leadership; allot a temporary increase in salary,
or even increase the base pay for more significant assignments.
- Iowa State and the University of Illinois
are working together on genomics research on soybeans. This is
encouraged by the soybean promotion boards in the two states because
teams representing more than one state can better compete for
federal funding, and cooperation between the states decreases
unnecessary duplication.
- The opportunities are great. For example,
we now have all the knowledge and computing power to couple fundamental
atomic level knowledge with larger length scale simulations and
to evaluate materials properties to aid in engineering designs-but
this requires teamwork to achieve major breakthroughs in science.
Getting scientists together in teams is like herding cats. Big,
relevant ideas are critical for a large cooperative project to
succeed and actually, money, while helpful, is not the only solution.
Panel of Chancellors
Richard L. Wallace,
University of Missouri - Columbia
Robert Hemenway, University of Kansas
- There are many avenues for raising funds
for research, some more successful than others. Increasing state
appropriations and raising tuition have not been options in Kansas.
Increasing private giving has been a strong point at the University
of Kansas, which has the 4th largest endowment among public universities.
KU has also been successful in gaining federal earmarks and in
building university-industry partnerships. Recently KU reorganized
the administration to provide an infrastructure across the campus
that will enable young faculty to capture more federal grants
and contracts.
- The defining characteristic of the next decade
will be partnerships. We must collaborate across disciplinary,
institutional, state and national boundaries to maximize our opportunities.
Effective teamwork requires breaking down communication barriers
that are part of traditional administrative structures.
- Two possibilities for cross-university alliances
could be: a Kansas State-KU partnership to deliver healthcare
to the elderly; and a partnership between KU and the University
of Missouri as a biology and genetics institute is established
in Kansas City.
- Mission enhancement at the University of Missouri
has strengthened interdisciplinary research. The wisdom of an
integrated approach to life sciences research has become clear
over the years and MU has responded by building two programs:
Food for the 21st Century and Molecular Biology. These were started
with state support and have since garnered significant federal
and other outside support.
- MU is engaged in a unique partnership that
combines public and private universities, as well as a for-profit
and a non-profit corporation. The Donald Danforth Plant Science
Center is intended to be a world class contributor to the field
of plant science.
- Human intellectual capital is our single most
valuable currency.
- This is one of the most productive environments
for research in many years because people are open to new ideas
and new ways of doing things.
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