New York State has invested millions of dollars in research and development (R&D) at its colleges and universities in an effort to stimulate economic growth, ensure global competitiveness, and spur crucial discoveries that lead to new technologies. Much of the State’s investment has focused on institutions engaging in cooperative agreements with public and private entities to foster the development and eventual commercialization of new products and processes. These investments continue despite State fiscal pressures. Assessment of the effectiveness of public investments in R&D has not been routinely incorporated in State policy tied to these investments, nor has a standard set of metrics been identified to evaluate their effectiveness.

The cooperative efforts of institutions of higher education, private business, community and other partners have been touted as hugely successful in terms of discoveries, commercialized products, job creation and overall economic development. While there is a halo of success around what has been reported in press accounts, there are, in fact, quantifiable measures of success, such as job creation, patent filings, and private investment, and varying ways to calculate these measurements that might be considered to help policymakers better understand the impact of state investment in R&D. In addition, there may be non-quantifiable measures that need to be both identified and taken into account when awarding State funds for R&D.

Given limited State funds along with multiple competing interests for them, this Roundtable will foster discussion on the significant questions related to evaluating how investment choices are made as well as how the results of those investments are measured. In economic and managerial terms, we need to understand the Return on Investment to the taxpayers of this State. Experts will be brought together to help policymakers assess the value of state-supported R&D and its impact on job creation and economic growth. Among the issues to be discussed are:

• What criteria should be used to choose among potential investments?

• What types of return to its R&D investments should the State be looking for?

• How should success be measured?

• Should different measures be assigned different values, and what should the values be?

• When should positive results from R&D in diverse science and technology fields be expected, and what should those results be?

• What kinds of reporting requirements/evaluation methods are appropriate?

• What benefits accrue, or should accrue, to the university or college community-at-large in return for their contributions, in-kind and otherwise, to research and development activities on campus?

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