Administrators, academics, and lobbyists gathered at the National Academy of Sciences Building on Thursday to plot a way forward for the nation’s research universities—just as portents of dwindling federal support for their work loomed in the background.
The shutdown of the federal government, now more than a week old, claimed two of the convocation’s prominent scheduled speakers: John P. Holdren, President Obama’s science adviser, and Ernest J. Moniz, U.S. secretary of energy. To participants, their absence was a potent symbol.
“The federal government is stuck in the mud,” said Hunter R. Rawlings III, president of the Association of American Universities, adding that the onus was now on research institutions to ensure their own survival.
“My confidence in our advocacy is waning,” Mr. Rawlings said. “What we need to do, I believe, is to try as best we can to ensure that the country’s research enterprise is not stuck in the mud.”
The convocation occurred more than a year after the National Research Council released a report, prepared at the request of Congress, to assess the financial status of the country’s research universities. Its recommendations focused largely on restoring federal and state funds for the institutions, but also coming to rely more on private and community partnerships.
The ‘Value Proposition’
Attendees at Thursday’s convocation proposed several actions, including articulating universities’ “value proposition,” to make lawmakers better aware of the number of jobs created through research and its role in preserving national security.
But much of the discussion dwelt not on solutions but on the problems facing research universities. Norman R. Augustine, a former chief executive of Lockheed Martin who has lobbied extensively for more federal support for scientific research, said a greater reliance on industry to finance research and development posed a problem.
“Industry focuses on ‘D,’ not on ‘R,’” Mr. Augustine said, adding that publicly emphasizing the importance of research in economic development was crucial.
Shifting research universities’ stance away from a plea for help is important, said Rep. Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who is a former physicist. “Ask not what research universities can get from this country, but ask what research universities can give to this country,” Mr. Holt told the audience.
The National Research Council report’s recommendations, meant to be carried out over the next decade, include keeping universities’ budget increases in line with the increase in the overall inflation rate, fully restoring state support for higher education, and having the federal government make good on a promise to double the basic-research budget of its science agencies, among other things.
While discussing possible action to fulfill the report’s recommendations, several attendees proposed strategies aimed at crafting a simple, focused message on the importance of the research mission. Charles O. Holliday Jr., chairman of the panel that released the report, ended the convocation by asking all in attendance to personally do one thing to further the recommendations by Thanksgiving.