As the United States celebrates 250 years of independence, Science has published a commentary by Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels highlighting the impact of the reimagining of the American university pioneered by Johns Hopkins in the late 19th century—and how the benefits of that shift and the later emergence of the compact between research universities and the federal government have been integral to the nation's success and prosperity.
"The transformation of the United States' research enterprise into a driver of American economic prosperity, health and longevity, and military preeminence is one of the country's great achievements of the post-World War II period," Daniels writes at the opening of his essay, titled "Johns Hopkins University and the American research enterprise."
Daniels describes first the evolution of American universities, with graduate studies and rigorous research becoming "defining features." That shift, he notes, set the stage for the blossoming of a fruitful relationship—buoyed by the successes of World War II—in which the federal government assumed primary financial responsibility for investment in basic research, recognizing it as a public good. Funding would be allocated on a competitive, meritocratic basis to investigators at research institutions across the country, who would conduct their work free from political influence or bureaucratic interference.
That model, established some eight decades ago, "has justifiably been the envy of the world," Daniels writes.
"The impact of the partnership between the federal government and America's research universities is borne out by the evidence," he adds. "Whether measured by the long-standing dominance of America's innovation-oriented industries or by the gap in productive capacity between America and major industrialized democracies, it is clear that the research and the skilled graduates produced by U.S. research universities, with foundational support from the federal government, have served as a major driver."
That system, and the innovation it yields, are now threatened by a significant reduction in U.S. research funding and proposed changes that would interject politics into the merit-based process—shifts that put future discoveries, breakthroughs, and cures at grave risk, Daniels writes.
"At this moment, commemorating the nation's 250th year, why would we unravel a model of scientific research that has served America and Americans so extraordinarily well for more than eight decades?" he concludes. "The imperative now is to address in a collaborative, respectful, and data-informed approach the areas that call out for repair, without squandering the genius of the model: its foundational commitment to merit, open competition, and the free flow of ideas that lie at the heart not only of the success of America's scientific enterprise, but of the nation itself."
