Interdisciplinary Research in the Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin

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1 Interdisciplinary Research in the Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin Dr. Juan M. Sanchez Vice President for Research ICTPI 14 July 2009 Porto, Portugal

2 Topics Challenges and Opportunities of the Modern Research University Education Research (Global, National and Local Context) The Entrepreneurial University Collaboration and its Impact R&D Magazine Top 100 Innovation Awards Profile of The University de Texas at Austin

3 The Public s Expectations Educate the Nation s and World s scholars, scientists and professionals so they will be leaders in their field Develop new knowledge and understanding through cutting edge research Contribute broadly to society through public service Be engines of economic development at the local, State, national and global levels 7/17/2009 Vice President for Research 3

4 The Education Challenge: National Geographic/Ropper Public Affairs survey of year old young Americans: 63% could not find Iraq or Saudi Arabia on a map of the Middle East; 37% could not identify Louisiana, 48% could not find Mississippi, 50% failed to pinpoint New York State; only 35% correctly choose Pakistan from 4 possible choices as the country hit by a catastrophic earthquake in October 2005; only 18% know that Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken native language in the world; when asked which of 4 countries has a majority of Muslim residents, only 25% correctly identified Indonesia. America, we have a problem 7/17/2009 Vice President for Research 4

5 The Future of Public Education (who will pay for public education?) Typical growth rates (last 10 years) Consumer Price Index 2.7% Family Income 3.5% State Funding 1.8% External Research Support 7.0% Endowment Growth 2.3% Salaries 4.8% Operating Costs 3.5% If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. Derek Bok 7/17/2009 Vice President for Research 5

6 The Opportunities and Challenges in Research Capital intensive activity dependent on rare talent Total R&D Expenditures at Universities in the U.S. for FY 2006: $48 billion Federal: $30 billion State & Local Government: $2.6 billion Industry sponsored: $2.2 billion Universities: $8 billion Cost of recruiting and retaining top-talent (salaries, facilities, lab equipment, libraries, graduate students support, etc.) 7/17/2009 Vice President for Research 6

7 Global Distribution of the R&D Investment (2007) Total = U$S B

8 R&D as % of GDP (Countries with value > 1%)

9 R&D as % of GDP (Countries with values <1%)

10 The Scene Pre-2009 Global Investment in R&D: USA ($353 B) Asia (Japan, Korea, China: $ 357 B) EU ($250 B) Rest ($165 B) Observations: Japan leads in R&D/GDP (exceeded 3%since 1998) UE Plans to reach 3% in 2010 Korea R&D grows 10% per year (passes the US in R&D/GDP in 2004, reaching 3%). China R&D grew by 20% in 2004 and 2005 and by 25% in India Relatively low investment ($42 B) but plan increases (increase competitiveness in high tech industries) Distribution of the Investment in the US?:

11 Sources of R&D: Billons U$S (constant 2006 $)

12 R&D Investment in the US The US leads in R&D investment but: R&D is largely D funded by industry Unlike Asia, the Federal investment in R&D has been relatively flat. Imbalance in the Federal investment (NIH, NSF, DoD) Federal R&D investment comes from 24 different Departments or Agencies The US does not have a scientific policy, it has a budget policy for science Rep. George Brown

13 Response to the Economic Downturn of 2009 The Federal Government INCREASES the investment in R&D for the next two years Energy: $9.1 billons NHI: $8.3 billons NSF: $3 billons NASA: $1 billon NIST: $ 970 millions Unanswered Question: What happens after 2 years? How are Universities doing?

14 R&D Expenditures at U.S. Universities (in Billons of U$S) Total Federal Other Sources Industry

15 The Entreprenurial University Keep focus on the Other Sources They invest $15+Billons annually (why?) State Governments: To promote Local Economic Development Targeted Universities investments To compete for $30 Billons in Federal R&D Compete for Industry s R&D investment Relatively small ($2 B at Us vs. $250 B in-house) and has been essentially flat, but very important. Optimize Commercialization Activities Not necessarily profitable (also very important)

16 Universities and Industry Collaboration, Competition or Both? The rapid growth of engineering and technical education, coupled with the commercial importance of research in the industries, has brought about a persistent demand the world over for a closer and more effective cooperation between the universities and industry. The value to both sides is today generally conceded, but we are still in the experimental stage of working out the problems. Frederick Cottrel, 1912

17 Collaboration and its Impact Analysis of R&D Magazine s Top 100 Innovation Awards ( ) Source: Where do Innovations Come From? F. Block & M.R. Keller The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, July 2008

18 T100 Awarded to Companies ( Fortune 500 ) Change in R&D strategy by industry

19 T100 Awards to Private vs. Public and Mixed Institutions

20 T100 Awards to Collaborating Institutions The opportunity: Collaborate to Innovate

21 The Economic Engine Challenge Commercialization activities at Universities in FY 2004: Invention Disclosures: ~16,900 Patents Filed: ~10,500 Patents Issued: ~3,700 Royalty Income: ~$1.4 billion New Licenses/Options: ~4,800 (27,000 active) Royalty Income: ~$1.4 billion New Companies: 462 (4,543 since 1980) Expectations of civic leaders for universities is to make LOTS of money from commercialization of their technologies 7/17/2009 Vice President for Research 21

22 The (supposed) Competition Number of Institutions creating Tech. Transfer Offices vs. Year of creation

23 Patent Activities at Universities in the U.S. Less than 2.5% of the total patents filed in the U.S.

24 Royalties Generated by Universities Technology Commercialization Currently more than $2 B per year Important but significantly less than the $50 B in R&D expenditures Comparable to R&D expenditures by industry at Universities

25 Reality Check Where is the Money? Total annual Federal investment in R&D at Universities: $30 billion (not intended for product development!) Total annual royalty income of universities: ~$2 billion Big numbers game: Typical deal is 5% royalty on gross sales : $40 billion in economic activity? 7/17/2009 Vice President for Research 25

26 Some of the Challenges Profitability (very few Tech. Transfer offices make a profit) Make it without a blockbuster (Iowa: fax algorithm; Florida: Gatorade; Stanford: DNA gene-splicing) Valuation of early technology (Billions vs. nothing) Parity of ability (the corporate lawyer vs. the tech. transfer staff) Publish or Perish (or Patent AND Perish?) Philosophy (academic vs. commercial goals or Tension among missions ) 7/17/2009 Vice President for Research 26

27 A few facts about UT Austin One of the largest campuses in the US (50,000 students) Large producer of Doctoral Degrees (1 st -3 th ) Member of Association of American Universities since 1929 City of Austin s largest employer (22,000 faculty and staff) UT Austin students contribute more than $500 million into the Austin economy each year Economic impact of all University expenditures on Texas economy totals $7.5 billion annually About 450,000 ex-students with about 100,000 living in Austin 7/17/2009 Vice President for Research 27

28 R&D Expenditures at the University of Texas at Austin [in Millions of U$S]

29 Federal Funding to Universities without a Medical School Fiscal Year 2006: MIT: UT Austin: U. of Illinois: UC Berkeley: $476 millions $273 millions $264 million $261 millions

30 Tech Transfer Statistics Patent Applications

31 Tech Transfer Statistics Active Licenses

32 Tech Transfer Statistics Existing Startup Companies

33 UT Austin Royalty Income (millions of U$S)

34 Three Examples of Interdisciplinary Research in the Sciences at the University Center for Nano and Molecular Science and Technology (CNM) Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES) Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)

35 Center for Nano- and Molecular Science and Technology $40M Nanoscience and Technology Building (NST), completed in June This building houses $16M+ of shared user equipment funded by federal grants and features a 10,000 sq. ft. clean room affiliated faculty members NST building (left) features shared-user equipment for nanomaterials analysis and fabrication User base of 250+ graduate and post-doctoral students Facilitates the research of 65 faculty research groups at the University containing more than 450 researchers

36 Research at CNM Solar Energy Harvesting Portable Electronics/Electric Vehicles Example of an OPV interface (type II donor-acceptor heterojunction) Example of an EES interface (Li + ion battery)

37 Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences 100+ researchers from 4 schools and colleges at UT Austin and 17 academic departments 11 research centers and 7 research groups Selected collaborations: Sandia National Laboratories Earth Simulator Center of Japan Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro University of Western Australia Universidade Técuica de Lisboa CIMNE Barcelona, Spain KAUST AEA Partner CSM Industrial Affiliates

38 Research at ICES Hurricane Surges Galaxy Formation Laser Treatment of Cancer Polymerization Nano-fabrication Protein Dynamics Earthquakes Visualization & Image Processing Subsurface Modeling Drug Design Cardiovascular

39 Texas Advanced Computing Center High performance computing (supercomputer) Ranger largest computer for open science research Lonestar, Champion, Stampede Stallion highest resolution display in the world Supports research in all science and engineering disciplines Available to national and international researchers (2200+ researchers presently)

40 Research at TACC Computing the Earth s Mantle Carsten Burstedde, Omar Ghattas, Georg Stadler, Tiankai Tu, Lucas Wilcox Hurricane Modeling Origins of the Universe Volker Bromm, Thomas Grief, Chris Burns