By Tom Still
MADISON, Wis. –No one should be surprised that President Trump’s post-inaugural “shock and awe” strategy has included reducing the size and scope of federal government. He pledged as much during his campaign and tasked the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to undertake it.
At least partly surprising is how quickly the effort extended to pausing a historic federal investment that has improved human health, created new products of all types, launched innovative companies, bolstered national defense and consistently strengthened the American and global economies.
That investment is research and development, which takes place on hundreds of public and private university campuses in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
It’s not hard to understand why Trump wants to rein in R&D spending on campuses, given his views on how they function. He sees many such campuses as bastions of elitism; defenders of diversity, equity and inclusion philosophy; and as citadels of liberal thought. Toss in an occasional seemingly frivolous study on … say, the mating habits of left-winged dodo birds … and the picture of a system out of control emerges for the new president.
Some of that is true, but it’s generally confined to portions of university campuses that wouldn’t know a test tube from a slide rule. Most researchers in fields such as medicine, engineering, physics and computer science are serious, heads-down people who don’t readily get involved in political causes that distract them from their core work.
Moreover, the magic of federal research grants as they have developed over time is their decentralized nature. They are not just concentrated on East or West coast campuses of the type that would irritate the new Trump administration, but across the Heartland, the South and the Great Plains.
The UW-Madison is one of the nation’s leading research universities in terms of receiving federal grants – and levering those dollars with private and other external funds that make it possible to move ideas from the lab bench to the marketplace.
It’s not just about Madison, which is the 6th leading federal R&D campus in the country. Every campus in the Universities of Wisconsin receives some federal R&D dollars, as do major private institutions such as the Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University and the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Why? The fundamental approach followed successfully for decades by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies (Defense chief among them) is to spread the bets.
More researchers attacking core problems can – and often does – lead to more solutions, therapies, cures and inventions. It also attracts private dollars that build upon the core work and help to translate research into economic reality.
“Investing in basic research is one of the biggest competitive advantages we have as a nation across the globe,” said John Neis, managing director of Venture Investors LLC, which has offices in Madison and Ann Arbor, Mich. “If we seriously undermine this kind of research, we will undercut our own economic competitiveness.”
The past and present portfolios of Venture Investors offer dozens of examples of companies involved in cancer detection and treatment, immunotherapy, vaccine development, glaucoma and cataract treatment and more. Those companies all have campus roots, one way or another. And there are hundreds of other investors just like them, doing the same thing across the country.
Here’s some perspective on what federal R&D spending through universities means in relation to the larger federal budget:
In fiscal year 2023, the federal government spent almost $60 billion on university R&D on topics ranging from defense to health to agriculture. That represented about 55% of total R&D spending at universities, meaning much of the rest was matched by private dollars. The total federal budget was about $6.2 trillion that year, meaning university R&D represented about 1% of total spending.
A lot of money, yes; a poor investment, no, not given what it produces in terms of well-being, jobs and economic growth.
Trump may well be justified in dialing back federal spending; the nation has run a deficit every year since 2001 and spending has grown to about 24% of gross domestic product. What’s alarming is that university research seems like a counter-productive place to start.
Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. He can be reached at tstill@wisconsintechnologycouncil.com.