The Role of Academia, Industry, and Government in the 21st Century (ARISE II)
The Academy's ARISE II project examines the research enterprise and the factors affecting our nation's productivity in science and technology. Three sectors--academia, government, and industry--must align their strengths to ensure that the United States maintains its leadership in science, technology, and medicine. The forthcoming project report will examine ways to support greater complementarity between these sectors and recommend strategies to create an integrated ecosystem that facilitates and fosters research and innovation.
This project builds upon the Academy's ARISE I study, which focused on early career scientists and high-risk, high-reward research.
The ARISE II committee is examining the relationships between the university and two critical stakeholders: federal funding agencies and industry.
1. The University and the Federal Funding Agencies
Sustainable investment in science, technology, and medical research must become a national economic priority. Recent increases in federal funding of science have been applauded by the research communities; however, the policies guiding the use of federal research funds impact the university in ways not sufficiently considered by policy-makers and funding agencies. The study group will investigate this relationship by examining questions such as:
- How do current funding mechanisms and processes impact the university, scientific innovation, and progress?
- How can academic advancement mechanisms and federal grant review policies better reflect and facilitate the increasingly collaborative nature of scientific research?
- How do current mechanisms and policies influence resource allocation decisions for faculty salaries, research equipment, and facilities?
2. The University and the Private Sector
Industries rely on universities for their raw materials: a trained workforce, fundamental and basic research, and the development of new concepts and technologies. Although certain attributes of academe and industry seem aligned, fundamental differences between their missions and goals can create barriers (for example, disagreement over the level of risk taken on by, and compensation awarded to, each stakeholder during technology transfer).
- How does the current relationship with the private sector affect the mission of the university to create new knowledge, and move both the knowledge and the trainees who created it outside its walls?
- What policy changes would stimulate industry investment in our nation’s basic and innovative research enterprise?
- How can American universities, as basic research centers, remain competitive with universities worldwide?
Innovative, high-risk research contributes to the vitality of the American economy. By taking a fresh look at the complex symbiosis between the university, private industry and government, the American Academy will continue its examination of how funding of science, engineering, and medical research can bolster the intellectual and economic competitiveness of America’s successful scientific enterprise.
Leadership
Members of this committee include Venkatesh Narayanamurti (Harvard University) and Keith Yamamoto (University of California, San Francisco), Chairs; Nancy Andrews (Duke University School of Medicine); Malcolm R. Beasley (Stanford University); Edward J. Benz (Dana Farber Cancer Institute); David Botstein (Princeton University); Kim Bottomly (Wellesley College); Robert Brown (Boston University); Mary Sue Coleman (University of Michigan); Uma Chowdhry (DuPont); Claude Canizares (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Susan Desmond-Hellman (University of California, San Francisco); Alan Ezekowitz (formerly of Merck Research Laboratories); Harvey V. Fineberg (Institute of Medicine); Mary L. Good (University of Arkansas); Antonio Marion Gotto, Jr. (Weill Medical College at Cornell University); Leah Jamieson (Purdue University); Linda Katehi (University of California, Davis); Neal Lane (Rice University); Eugene H. Levy (Rice University); Cherry A. Murray (Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences); Gilbert Omenn (University of Michigan); Thomas D. Pollard (Yale University); Robert C. Richardson (Cornell University); David Sabatini (New York University); Randy Schekman (University of California, Berkeley); Henri A. Termeer (Genzyme Corporation, ret.); Samuel Thier (Harvard Medical School); and Leslie Berlowitz ex officio (American Academy of Arts and Sciences).
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