Research Partnerships
Increasing public-private collaboration on university-based research
University-based research attracts high-tech business enterprises, leverages federal and private grant dollars, helps recruit and retain top faculty, and creates outstanding educational opportunities for students. Public-private partnerships that facilitate research and development programs often produce other tangible benefits, from creating clusters of industry-specific development to turning new discoveries into commercially viable products and processes.
The return on investment in university-based research is dramatic, as both the Cooper Center’s recent Virginia economic impact analysis and numerous national studies demonstrate. Higher education research in Virginia annually generates nearly $600 million in economic output, creates thousands of jobs, and produces $72 million in state tax revenues (far exceeding what the Commonwealth spends). Virginia needs a clear and sustained program to promote public-private collaboration on research, especially in areas such as energy and healthcare where federal and private entities currently are investing heavily.