Leaders from the business, political, academic and philanthropic sectors will gather in New Orleans early next year for a conference that will focus on ways to increase the flow of federal research dollars to Louisiana.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., is organizing the Louisiana Research Summit, as the event will be called, and has lined up an impressive slate of national experts to address those in attendance.
Among the scheduled speakers are: Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health; Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; and France Cordova, director of the National Science Foundation.
“My hope is that this forum will be the first of many meetings to improve the economic benefit of research across the state,” Cassidy says. “When government, university and industry partner together to pursue research and innovation, everyone benefits.”
Louisiana ranks 29th out of the 50 states in terms of its share of federal research dollars, according to Research America, a nonprofit organization that advocates for federal research funding. In 2013, the latest year for which data is available, Louisiana received $273.2 million in federal research dollars from the four largest agencies that dole out such funds.
Cassidy says the state should strive to do better, particularly because of the economic development that follows research.
“New innovation and technology leads to new industries and companies, which means more jobs in Louisiana,” he says.
The Louisiana Research Summit will be held Feb. 16 at the University Medical Center. Additional details are still being finalized.
—Stephanie Riegel
