Blazing New Trails To The Endless Frontier: Transforming America's University Research

Forbes

5 days ago

By Mung Chiang, President of Purdue University
(This was an opening keynote at the SEMI EXPO Heartland on April 1 in Indianapolis, with additional examples of events since.)
For fourscore years or so, the research enterprise that fueled the American innovation engine was built on the Bell Labs and National Science Foundation models. In the latter, a social contract was implicitly agreed upon between the American people and their elected officials and the country's top universities after the adoption of 'Science: The Endless Frontier,' written by Vannevar Bush for President Harry Truman in the concluding months of World War II.
In this contract, much research would be carried out at universities, including private ones, and, through both federal/local tax benefits and government budgetary allocations, public resources would be used as the primary funding source for research at these universities. They would then carry out both the 'knowledge dissemination' and the 'knowledge creation' mission.
The NSF was subsequently created in 1950, and the Sputnik moment accelerated the U.S. government's investment across many funding agencies. The peace dividend of the 1990s was shared with these agencies, especially the National Institutes of Health. Both models were based on essentially a monopoly enjoyed by the funding source. Both were choices made, indeed well made, but these were not and are not the only choices.
Now at the midpoint between the end of World War II and the end of the 21st century, we are at an inflexion point. The American public wants to explore a new social contract where federal tax dollars assume a smaller portion of the financing equation for research carried out in universities.
Purdue University
Daily twists and turns aside, is this mostly a transient process, or will it be long lasting? Academia might not be going back to the same good ride of the past 75 years. A new equilibrium for university research could emerge. This premise bounds the scope of the rest of this discussion, knowing that the arguments for resuming the last three-quarters of a century into the future centuries have also been articulated in passionate public advocacy.
If fundamental changes are coming ashore anyway, what can we do to maximize the vitality of university research in the new situation? In particular, how should universities work with private capital, both profit-seeking and philanthropic ones, in future decades?
Now, private capital for university research is not new, but boosting its scale and scope requires a new culture and innovative mechanisms. There were legitimate reasons why the primary source of funding has comfortably been the government rather than companies and gifts. But today's necessity might incentivize a revisit and reimagination. New arrangements and processes are required for all parties, because industry and academia are naturally misaligned and misfit in many dimensions:
All industries would be incentivized if Congress would create a tax benefit for corporations' funding of university research. With skin in the game, some might become a partner with, or even a distributor for, federal research funding.
We also recognize that the university-industry relationship is a hexagon: research, recruiting, online learning, IP licensing, philanthropy and economic development. If we do well in one with a company, we should try to elevate the other five too and synergize across all six. Purdue has started experimenting with '360 partnership task forces' with Eli Lilly and Company and SK hynix, with growth toward some of the other 400 companies we partner with.
Purdue has always been one of the most industry-coupled universities in the country, and it's getting even better each day as we build out America's Hard Tech Corridor in the heartland. Our semiconductor degrees program has an industry leadership advisory board. Our enterprise publicity campaign is carried out jointly with corporate partners. Our Daniels School of Business now requires AI literacy as a graduation requirement. Training workshops for faculty and staff new to the world of industry partnership started in the spring 2025 semester. Collaborations among previous silos are building new muscles across the offices of Industry Partnerships, Sponsored Program Services, Entrepreneurship and Commercialization, Technology Commercialization, and fund-raising development.
Just in the past few months, we have had numerous successes across various sectors. The following examples pilot key elements of an emerging playbook, one that favors scale, speed and agility. A watershed moment was the announcement on May 9, 2025, in Indianapolis of the largest university-industry research program: $250 million over the next seven years of funding from Eli Lilly and Company to Purdue University in medicine discovery, foundry and manufacturing. Other recent examples abound too:
But a tough concern remains: how to support fundamental research (and those disciplines removed from industry)? That is the spring source of a waterfall that cascades into new economic equations and, eventually, quarterly profits. Several ideas are worth exploring, though none are satisfactory yet:
Now let's briefly turn to philanthropy. A capital campaign covers all dimensions of the university, and research and innovation are often not the natural top priority. While this tendency can be improved through staff training and donor cultivation, especially in areas like the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research or the life sciences, additional models warrant exploration.
One emerging model is for the benefactors to provide a gift that creates an affiliated research institute, where the affiliation is strong and clear (e.g., faculty joint appointment, patent agreement, etc.). Donors might feel more in control via the resulting governance structure and mission specification. Universities can still benefit from research support and a translational pathway. Clearly, a whole set of parameters needs to be worked out: gift tax, intellectual property, conflicts of interest, and financial terms. With a $20 million gift from Professor Phil Low, a long-time leader in drug discovery and cancer treatment, Purdue announced April 29 the launch of the Low Institute for Therapeutics, creating new models in this direction.
Let's not forget: The total wealth in America is not shrinking. Appreciation for research results still lingers in society. But universities need to get creative in architecting new pathways. Devils live in the details, but so did they when NSF was launched in the 1950s. Details can be created for a new mindset, as first movers enjoy timely advantages.
Paraphrasing Vannevar Bush in 1945: The frontiers are still endless; we might just have to blaze some new trails to continue the worthy pursuit.