Louisiana’s higher education institutions need to be more efficient with the research funds they spend in order to spur innovation in the state’s economy and bring more new ideas to the marketplace, the head of the Public Affairs Research Council said today.
Robert Travis Scott, speaking to the Press Club of Baton Rouge, unveiled a new PAR report with a lengthy list of suggestions for the state’s universities to find better ways to maximize their research output to help grow the local economy. The list includes appointing a designated state leader for innovation in Louisiana and revamping the state Board of Regents’ Support Fund—constitutionally dedicated for higher education research—to better ensure they flow to research programs and not programs such as the arts and individual scholarships.
“University R&D should not be researched just for knowledge enhancement alone,” Scott said. “We basically want to make it so that we can have some economic impact through our higher education system.”
PAR’s report says it’s not about how much money the institutions have—it’s how much they do with the dollars on hand.
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