IU's Commitment to Indiana's Future
Leadership
Creating Knowledge: Research enriches student experience, state's economy
Michael A. McRobbie
President
Indiana University
"New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become." So wrote Kurt Vonnegut Jr., LHD'73, Indiana's most renowned contemporary literary product and grandson of the architect of many of the state's most beautiful structures, including the IU Student Building on the Bloomington campus.
I certainly agree with Vonnegut that research and scholarship lead to the creation of that knowledge. Knowledge is the lifeblood of IU's, and Indiana's, future. Our status as a major creator of knowledge fuels our best students' desire to be here; it is the foundation not only of our alumni's success in the world, but also of their pride in the institution. At IU, the creation of knowledge is every faculty member's mission, and in the 21st century, we are seeing the importance of research—indeed, the state's and the nation's economies' urgent need for it—as never before.
Indiana's culture has been through many transitions and upheavals, from pioneer to agrarian to manufacturing to an emerging knowledge-based model. The results of our research can be the engine of change to a new Indiana. Everything that we do at the Office of the Vice President for Research is a means toward that end. What will our identity be 20, 30, 50 years from now? Will this be a state at the forefront of new technology, art and culture, of deeper understanding of the humanities, and of new ways to employ gainfully the millions who will live here? In some fields, we are already recognized as leaders, but what will it require for us to stay ahead of the competition?
(Former IU) President Adam Herbert, in his inaugural address, presented a formidable challenge: to accelerate the growth of our external research funding. Though the government has cut available grants, I'm happy to report that we are progressing satisfactorily toward our goal in virtually every area, led by life sciences and information technology. Our artists and humanists are doing well, too, as evidenced by the $5 million New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Program grant awarded last year by the Lilly Endowment.
Funding for research expands our knowledge of the world and of everyone and everything in it. In the 21st century, basic knowledge is being adapted ever more quickly into real-world applications that give us everything from cell phones and iPod nano to new ways of manufacturing basic goods and new artistic methods. And each new idea spawns several more just as innovative. IU's researchers can do everything from creating new basic science to applying it to business, to marketing it in new ways, to analyzing its impact on society, and even to interpreting the culture it has changed artistically and critically.
Each step in that process offers the potential for a uniquely exciting education for our students, who are learning not from distant sources but from the very creators of that knowledge. The state wins, too. Every dollar the university brings in for research contributes to new economic activity. With $477 million in external research funding last fiscal year, IU can directly claim to support 8,000 jobs through this funding—most of them in high-paying professional sectors.
We are faced with many challenges, of course. We strive diligently to keep up with our competition to attract and retain the best faculty. We are critically short of quality research space in both Bloomington and Indianapolis. We must ensure that our faculty have enough time to create new knowledge, teach our students, and serve the state. Most succeed admirably.
Indiana University contains broad expertise; in some ways, it would be easier to be a school with a narrow research mission, but we embrace the challenge of being first-rate in everything from performance art to proteomics. Thanks to the help of the state, and especially our alumni, we are succeeding at incubating the knowledge that will enrich Indiana in every way imaginable, for generations to come.
Originally appeared in Indiana Alumni Magazine, January/February 2006. Reprinted with permission.
