A meeting of 86 persons occurred July 11 and 12 at the University of Kansas. Faculty, administrators and others associated with KU, such as the Kansas Board of Regents, attended.
The 86 persons were divided into six groups. Two groups focused on questions related to creating and communicating priorities in research and education, as well as developing relationships with various collaborators in and supporters of research. Discussion of these topics is summarized under the heading "Area 1." Two groups focused on balancing university commitments to research and education, a topic labeled below as "Area II." And two groups focused on the development of campus support systems and teams to engender large-scale multidisciplinary projects, designated "Area III." Below are some of the main suggestions that arose in the course of those discussions.
In addition to the discussion groups, two speakers addressed the conferees, one at the beginning of the first day, one at the beginning of the second.
David L. Bodde, Charles N. Kimball MRI/Missouri Chair in Management of Technology and Innovations at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, gave the keynote address. His talk was titled "The Emerging Environment for University Research." Bodde gave four reasons for the emergence of a new environment for research: a cyclic downturn in the funding of basic research by the federal government and industry, a structural change occurring in the research and development enterprise, new patterns of technological innovation and the hybridization of disparate technologies. The result is intense competition among universities seeking to maintain or expand research programs.
Because federal support of research is unlikely to grow, a better approach for the universities might be to compete more effectively in the arena of greatest growth potential: industrial research and development. This requires that universities integrate sponsor needs with their strengths; organize interdisciplinary research teams; raise discretionary funds through royalties and the creation of spin-off companies; and integrate students into this revised research mission.
The second speaker was KU Chancellor Robert E. Hemenway. In addition to his speech, Hemenway provided a memo to conferees summarizing his positions.
He said that KU has had a long-standing compact with government, industry and Kansas citizens both to discover new knowledge and to educate new generations. But the Cold War-driven urgency that led the government to invest heavily in research has disappeared, eroding the compact. The need to be competitive internationally has led to an emphasis on applied research. The private sector has cut back on its commitment to basic research.
Even so, KU's goal is to reach $120 million in sponsored research by 2000. To do this, KU has begun a systematic assessment of graduate programs. The campus is being restructured, with the academic mission as key to KU's organization and research at the center of the mission. KU has identified certain areas for re-engineering in order to stimulate research, and it is going to create a research foundation for the entire campus.
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