Brodhead in D.C.

President brings message that funding for research is important for America's future

By Geoffrey Mock

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Download from iTunes the entire Association of American Universities press conference on research funding.

Durham, NC -- In 2006, politicians from both parties lined up to support increased funding for basic research as a way to keep the U.S. economy competitive. But last year, Congress didn’t follow through. On the last day of its budget negotiations, most of the increases promised for the main research-granting agencies disappeared.

This week, Duke President Richard H. Brodhead joined other university presidents, business leaders and national higher education officials in Washington, D.C., to say these federal budget decisions have already harmed basic research at universities and, unless changed, will put the American economy and jobs at risk.

“Everyone I speak to in Washington, D.C., understands the direct link between research funding and universities, and the impact that investment in this area has on the economy,” Brodhead said during his trip. “The politicians powerfully accept that argument. Our challenge as advocates of basic research is to get the resources and the policies to follow the rhetoric.”

On Tuesday, Brodhead joined several university presidents, business leaders and national higher education officials at a news conference calling on Congress to approve immediate increases for research funding.

Norman Augustine, retired CEO of Lockeed Martin and leader of an influential 2005 report on global competitiveness from the National Academies, said Congress also needed to make a long-term commitment to providing full funding for basic research.

“Recently, when the economy got in trouble, we quickly found $152 billion in tax rebates to meet the problem,” Augustine said at the news conference. “That’s a far greater amount than we’re asking for. But we have to solve fundamental problems, and that means strengthening investment in the research budget and fixing science and math education in K-12. If we do those two things, we’ll go a long way toward solving our problems.”

Brodhead’s said research funding needs to be strengthened across the board among the major federal funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the departments of Defense and Energy.

“We don’t like trading one off against each other,” Brodhead said at the news conference. He noted that modern research often involves large, interdisciplinary groups of researchers who receive funding from the different sources to apply diverse approaches to common problems.

“Science takes a continuity of investment,” Brodhead said. “We don’t want the NSF pushed forward at the expense of the NIH. We count on all of these things. All of them have undergirded the discoveries that have supported our economy.”

“People at a university feel this disincentive to make science a career,” he said. “Unfortunately, the magnets in our culture already are against research as a career. Something like this budget just makes it worse. We’re all just worried that we might lose four, five years of smart people not going into research careers. You pay for this not the next year, but 15-20 years down the road.”

On Wednesday, Brodhead held individual meetings with officials on Capitol Hill. He raised the issue of research funding with several members of Congress from North Carolina – Heath Shuler, David Price, Walter Jones and Mike McIntyre.

Brodhead also met with Lamar Smith (R.-TX), who now serves on the House Judiciary Committee. They discussed intellectual property issues and Brodhead thanked Smith for supporting “orphan works” legislation – an important issue for Duke Libraries. The legislation limits liability for individuals and organizations who publish copyrighted works whose owners may be impossible to identify and locate.

Duke officials said it is important for the university to be a leader in such national discussions about research funding and higher education issues.

“All major research universities now have to devote time and energy to advocating support for academic research,” said Chris Simmons, Duke’s associate vice president for federal relations. “President Brodhead is committed to showing how higher education issues serve the national interest. These meetings are one of the best ways to make that case, but the president can’t do it alone. We rely on the continued interest and efforts of faculty, students and administrators to add their voice on higher education issues.”