INVESTING IN THE FUTURE

By John A. White
Chancellor, University of Arkansas

This op-ed essay by Chancellor John White was published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of Saturday, Dec. 9, 2000.

In the last legislative biennium, the General Assembly and Governor Mike Huckabee made a comparatively small investment with public funds that has paid enormous dividends for public higher education in general, the University of Arkansas in particular—and, by extension, the state we serve.

I’m referring to Act 1545 of 1999, which established in the state’s General Improvement Fund a pool of up to $10 million as a "research matching fund" for public colleges and universities, enabling them to compete for more—and larger--federal research grants. State matching funds are not used arbitrarily or merely to "sweeten the pot." Rather, they are required for major federal research and development grants. Without them, Arkansas’ public colleges and universities can’t even get into the room to play the game, much less compete to win.

Before 1999, the state legislature provided $1 million or so per year to the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority (ASTA) for matching EPSCOR and NASA grants. EPSCOR—Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research--is dedicated to directing federal research and development monies to states that do not traditionally get their fair share of these dollars. EPSCOR monies have been helpful for Arkansas.

Act 1545 changed everything, however, for the better. It broadened the scope of research for which matching funds can be used. And it greatly increased the amount of research matching funds released by Governor Huckabee to ASTA and flowing to qualifying institutions.

But the legislature did even more in terms of state matching funds. It also provided, specifically for the University of Arkansas, a pool of $7 million on the legislative side of the General Improvement Fund. These funds are being used to build the University’s research infrastructure - paying for the laboratory improvements, new equipment, and improved telecommunications that make it possible for faculty to do cutting edge research.

The payoff for the University and the state has been immediate and dramatic.

On Oct. 13, the University announced a $9.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish the Center for Protein Structure and Function. The center—involving 19 faculty members at the University of Arkansas and three researchers from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences—will qualify Arkansas as a major player in the human genome project, deciphering the inner workings of human DNA.

Not only is it the largest federal grant ever received by the U of A, but we are one of only 19 universities and research organizations nationally this year to receive a share of NIH funding for this purpose.

Despite the incredible scientific brainpower, our laboratories and equipment, and our cooperation with UAMS, our proposal to NIH would not have been selected had we not been able to offer a state "match" - in this case $575,000. In other words, the state’s investment produced a return of 1,700 percent.

On Oct. 24, the University of Arkansas announced a second major federal grant of $4.5 million from the National Science Foundation. This will be shared with the University of Oklahoma to establish a joint Center for the Study of Nanostructures, which will contribute significantly to the development of faster, small computers. The University was one of only four such materials science centers to be funded by NSF this year-the others being Cal Tech, Penn State, and the University of Virginia. The required state match for this grant—which made the U of A nationally competitive at the highest levels—was $1.39 million.

So what is the payoff for the state of Arkansas? The research findings will profoundly affect our knowledge about the genetic code and the future of computer technology. We also will be able to train the next generation of researchers and scholars primarily at the expense of the federal government. However, the greatest payoff, one that will benefit all Arkansans, was identified in a study released in early November by Professors Jeffery Collins and Craig Schulman of the U of A’s Sam M. Walton College of Business Administration: "Priming the Pump: Research as a Catalyst for Economic Growth."

Their research revealed two major facts:

• For every dollar invested in public higher education in the state of Arkansas, the return on investment is 8 percent per year (the U.S. average is 6.6 percent per year).
• For every dollar invested in research conducted in Arkansas public universities, the return on investment is 23 percent per year (the U.S. average is 17.5 percent per year).

Stated another way, in the biennium that began July 1, 1999, the University of Arkansas has already received—or hopes to receive before next June 30—$8.14 million in state matching research funds. This has allowed the University to compete for and win some nearly $20 million ($19.84 million) thus far this year in federal research grants. Taken together, this sum, nearly $28 million, will have an economic impact on Arkansas equal to $224 million over the next 10 years. That’s not a bad return for the state’s $8 million investment.

The state of Arkansas has done a very good job over the last decade or so in providing access to higher education for its citizens. In fact, Arkansas now ranks 11^th out of the 50 states in the number of public higher education institutions per capita.

It is now time to go to the next level. We are asking the state to increase its investment in research so that we may help create the knowledge and technology-based economy Arkansas needs and deserves. A new research-based economy will create the kind of jobs that will halt the brain drain of our college graduates and talented professionals to other states; it will keep them working in Arkansas.

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