r&d

As many stories in this issue of the Digest point out, academic institutions serve a critical role in performing R&D for the nation’s innovation pipeline. While most of the attention of national policymakers is directed toward the size of federal and industrial investments in R&D, the burden of financing the infrastructure to support much of that research activity falls on states and institutions of higher education. And that burden has a steep price tag.

Federal funding of academic science and engineering (S&E) R&D failed to outpace inflation for two consecutive years, according to the latest annual Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges from the National Science Foundation (NSF).  The decline in two consecutive years has never occurred before in the survey's 36-year history.

According to National Science Foundation (NSF) data released two weeks ago, companies spent in aggregate $247.7 billion on R&D expenditures performed in the U.S. in 2006. Leading the nation was California, with $58.4 billion in industrial R&D, followed by Michigan ($16.5 billion), Massachusetts ($15.6 billion), New Jersey ($14.6 billion), and Texas ($13.3 billion).
 

Last week, three contracts between North Dakota State University (NDSU) and research partners at two Department of Energy federal laboratories were announced, building research opportunities within the Red River Valley Research Corridor. They included the following:

• A $50,000 contract from Sandia National Laboratories to develop water purification membranes through polymer research;
• A $25,000 contract also from Sandia for solar cell research which will utilize technologies patented at NDSU; and,

How should states determine the focus and location of significant investments into academic research? The process can easily become politicized when more than one research institution, sizable metropolitan area or major industry exist in the state.

Our German isn't what it should be and online translators weren't as helpful as we'd expected, but we wanted to make readers aware of the size of the investment Berlin is making over the next four years to recruit star faculty to its four research universities and the four local, private research institutions of Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Helmholtzgemeinschaft, Leibniz Community, and the Max Planck Society.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley recently announced a plan to launch an advanced robotics research, training and education center to prepare workers for the robotics industry and attract high-tech employers to the state. Calhoun Community College in Decatur will host the $71 million center, in partnership with the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Gov. Riley first proposed the robotics campus in 2006 and believes the center will help increase the state’s profile as a leader in the robotics industry.

As annual appropriations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) flattened – at the same time more and more states and universities are increasing their investments in academic bioscience research capacity – competition for NIH grants has heightened. Reports indicate investigators in the early stages of their careers and transformative research have been the victims of the squeeze.
 

On June 5, 2008, the government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg announced plans for a $200 million five-year molecular medicine initiative that draws on a strategic partnership involving three Luxembourg Public Research Centers (CRPs), the University of Luxembourg and three U.S. research institutes prominent in the field.
 
The U.S. research institutions include:

• Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, led by Dr. Jeffrey Trent;

To encourage innovation in research, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) recently awarded $600 million to 56 biomedical scientists who will investigate and pursue scientific discoveries ranging from microbiology and immunology to bioengineering and synthetic biology.