Find all Leading Research Universities Reports below. The Leading Research Universities report is a free newsletter covering events in higher education and research.
Reporting from The New York Times and The Washington Post confirms AAU’s recent analysis showing that the rate of competitive awards made by NIH has slowed down significantly this fiscal year.
Across the country, NASA funds research projects on university campuses that are developing new technologies for robotic exploration, advancing our understanding of the universe, yielding useful knowledge of our planet and solar system, and training the next generation of scientists and engineers. On April 21, a showcase, “Igniting Discovery: How NASA Funding Advances American Science,” exhibited some of that research on Capitol Hill.
While much of university research has been funded by the federal government, most Americans don’t realize that universities are not just recipients of federal support. Universities already provide more to fund their own research than private businesses, charitable foundations, or state governments – meaning they have little capacity to backfill significant cuts to federal research funding from other sources.
Though NASA’s astronauts are back on Earth following the completion of the Artemis II mission, the scientific impact of their historic trip around the moon will continue to reverberate for years to come – and research from AAU member universities is partially responsible for the success of the program that launched it.
A new report warns that the loss of talent will hurt long-term economic growth and innovation in the United States, including in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing.
All five of the universities supporting Chicago's emerging quantum hub are AAU institutions, each leading initiatives that attract federal funding and commercial investments, develop cross-industry partnerships, educate the future workforce, build infrastructure, and foster startups.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla warned that “for the first time in history or in recent decades … U.S. dominance in biotech technology is [being] challenged by a competitor, and that’s China.” If the United States is to maintain its edge, he argued, the country must strengthen its biotech innovation ecosystem, including by investing in science and university research.
Despite the agency’s efforts to make the data more accessible and transparent, flaws in how the dashboard is set up risks misleading the public as well as lawmakers about the true nature and extent of university foreign funding.
If enacted, these reductions would significantly undermine America’s capacity to conduct groundbreaking research, train the next generation of scientists and engineers, and keep up with competitor and adversary nations in emerging technologies critical to national and economic security.
A new assessment shows China has officially crept past the United States in total research and development (R&D) investment.