Funding and the Future of U.S. Public Research Universities

Abstract

Innovation through research is a critical element to a nation's success in the highly competitive global marketplace. University research provides the base from which an important part of the most competitive innovations arise. The modern research university, with synergy flowing from a mix of research, graduate study and undergraduate instruction, is vital to simultaneously generating needed knowledge while also educating future generations of researchers and able graduates primed to take advantage of research findings. In the U.S. the very high proportion of research and graduate education done by public universities makes their futures key the future competitive success of the country.