{"id":58512,"date":"2014-07-10T20:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T20:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=58512"},"modified":"2014-07-21T19:23:56","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T19:23:56","slug":"clark-stresses-need-for-federal-research-support-at-national-press-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/clark-stresses-need-for-federal-research-support-at-national-press-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Clark stresses need for federal research support at National Press Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Universities can help drive regional economic development and strengthen American competitiveness — but only if the federal government continues to partner with institutions and commits to provide the sustained research funding that is required to, first, discover a good idea, then \u201ctranslate\u201d it into products and services that benefit society.<\/p>\n

That was the consensus of Robert Clark, the University\u2019s Senior Vice President for Research, and nine other senior research officers from top U.S. universities Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. They participated in a roundtable discussion sponsored by the Association of American Universities and The Science Coalition, which was attended by reporters from The Boston Globe, Huffington Post, Gannett Newspapers and other national publications.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur communities look to us for leadership,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThey look to us for jobs and they look to us to generate innovation for new jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent federal caps on research funding, and outright cuts due to sequestration, are impeding university research efforts, the participants concurred.<\/p>\n

Clark, for example, cited the loss of momentum that occurs when funding for key projects is interrupted even temporarily. \u201cOnce you close a program — even if the funding opportunity returns in three to four years — you\u2019ve lost the intellectual talent in the lab, you\u2019ve lost the ability to quickly respond and do work. So to restart that is a significant investment, far more than (would be required in) sustaining the programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other impacts include difficulty in convincing top students to pursue basic research as a career, and the potential innovation deficit confronting the U.S. as other countries, especially in Asia, aggressively increase their investment in research and development. That deficit includes the loss of talented researchers who \u201cfollow the money\u201d to other countries.<\/p>\n

Clark noted the \u201cdouble-edge sword\u201d that occurs at the URochester when faculty members obtain dual appointments at international institutions. The university gains partnerships with those institutions, but also loses the services of the faculty members for certain periods of the year.<\/p>\n

Clark said he frequently visits partner institutions in Hong Kong, China and Singapore, and has seen first hand the \u201cincredible infrastructure\u201d that is being developed in their labs. \u201cIf other governments are willing to invest more in fundamental research than we\u2019re willing to invest, we\u2019re going to see ideas follow the money,\u201d he said. The first allegiance for many faculty members is to their research, he added. \u201cThat\u2019s their focus, and wherever they can best fund those ideas, that\u2019s where the money goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the discussion shifted to technology transfer, Clark described how the Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ \u201ctook our tech transfer office and basically created a venture creation shop (UR Ventures)\u201d with an emphasis on making University research discoveries available for licensing and to help generate startup companies.<\/p>\n

However, \u201cbridge funding\u201d is required to take basic research discoveries to that point. The University is investing some of its own money in this effort, but it is a \u201cvery small portion\u201d of what is needed.<\/p>\n

Clark used this analogy to explain: \u201cWe have all these seeds. Nobody is sure what fruit these seeds will bear, so they\u2019re not really willing to buy the seeds. We have to do a little bit to grow the plants, to make them a viable, ongoing venture. That\u2019s where the investment comes, that\u2019s the bridge funding that is lacking from fundamental research investment. We\u2019ve been trying to bridge the gap and I think that is critical. That is what will drive economic development.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the start of the roundtable, each of the senior research officials was asked to describe a particularly exciting research project taking place on their campus. Clark described the University\u2019s $100 million commitment to a new Institute for Data Science. He specifically mentioned the work of Institute Director Henry Kautz and his lab in downloading tweets from social media to track and predict the spread of influenza. \u201cYou can use the same technology to predict in which restaurants you might be most likely to encounter food poisoning,\u201d Clark noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sounds like very useful information,\u201d commented moderator Mike Waring, executive director of federal relations at the University of Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur higher education has been the envy of the world,\u201d Clark said. \u201cWe are all here because we are committed to making sure it stays that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

And on that note, the roundtable adjourned.<\/p>\n

\"video Watch the proceedings on YouTube<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Universities can help drive regional economic development and strengthen American competitiveness \u2014 but only if the federal government continues to partner with institutions and commits to provide the sustained research funding that is required to, first, discover a good idea, then \u201ctranslate\u201d it into products and services that benefit society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":58522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,1],"tags":[18612,18632,9186,18622],"class_list":["post-58512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech","category-uncategorized","tag-announcements","tag-hajim-school-of-engineering-and-applied-sciences","tag-research-funding","tag-robert-clark"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRobert Clark stresses need for federal research support at National Press 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