Spring Break
A hefty investment, research Superclusters draw visibility, critics
Research brings negligible returns
Aaron Hedge and J. David McSwane
Issue date: 9/23/08 Section: News
As Colorado ranks dead last in funding for higher education, and after public disagreements with Gov. Bill Ritter and legislators on how to best increase the school's budget, CSU President Larry Penley has turned to marketing the university as a world-class research institute to bring money -- and attention -- to the school.
And as the push continues, CSU's research expenditures surpass that of peer institutions by 27 percent -- a notable accomplishment considering three years ago the university was at the bottom of the list. But CSU now falls about 6 percent behind in instructional spending, according to university officials.
Expensive TV commercials, magazine ads and billboards brand the university as leading the way in environmental problem-solving, and Penley looks to feature articles in Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal and other major media outlets as evidence of CSU's prominence. And the highly marketed Superclusters are at the crux of the school's newfound notoriety.
The Superclusters concept, intensely focused categories for research on key subjects like cancer and infectious disease, were adopted in 2006 with the help of a $900,000 gift from the CSU Board of Governors reserve fund and were established as a university priority the next year when the Board approved $2 million for the concepts from the school's budget.
Superclusters are promoted as bringing valuable research to the market to challenge global issues like sustainability and clean energy while kicking back royalties for patents to the school, sometimes resulting in start-up companies like MicroRx, which works to commercialize results from the Infectious Disease Supercluster.
But a report of royalties received over the last 10 years from technology transfer initiatives like Superclusters shows the university has only seen about $9.4 million in returns -- a figure dwarfed by the billions of dollars poured into research projects.
Tony Frank, provost and executive vice president, said the return on innovations from research is expected to increase over time but said royalties are only an ancillary benefit of the research.
And as the push continues, CSU's research expenditures surpass that of peer institutions by 27 percent -- a notable accomplishment considering three years ago the university was at the bottom of the list. But CSU now falls about 6 percent behind in instructional spending, according to university officials.
Expensive TV commercials, magazine ads and billboards brand the university as leading the way in environmental problem-solving, and Penley looks to feature articles in Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal and other major media outlets as evidence of CSU's prominence. And the highly marketed Superclusters are at the crux of the school's newfound notoriety.
The Superclusters concept, intensely focused categories for research on key subjects like cancer and infectious disease, were adopted in 2006 with the help of a $900,000 gift from the CSU Board of Governors reserve fund and were established as a university priority the next year when the Board approved $2 million for the concepts from the school's budget.
Superclusters are promoted as bringing valuable research to the market to challenge global issues like sustainability and clean energy while kicking back royalties for patents to the school, sometimes resulting in start-up companies like MicroRx, which works to commercialize results from the Infectious Disease Supercluster.
But a report of royalties received over the last 10 years from technology transfer initiatives like Superclusters shows the university has only seen about $9.4 million in returns -- a figure dwarfed by the billions of dollars poured into research projects.
Tony Frank, provost and executive vice president, said the return on innovations from research is expected to increase over time but said royalties are only an ancillary benefit of the research.
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