Iowa State leaving AAU

[Gophers_4life]

[MODS: please move this thread if you feel it appropriate to do so. I am initially putting it in football for the following reasons: 1) membership in the AAU has long been cited by many people in conference realignment discussions as a "baseline" for consideration in joining the Big Ten, and 2) that topic obviously directly impacts all teams, but particularly football, and is something that I think most would be interested to know, which leads to 3) the football board I feel like by far sees the most traffic]


https://www.inside.iastate.edu/article/2022/04/21/aau

Iowa State University of Science and Technology today announced it has concluded its membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU).

The decision to end AAU membership is driven by Iowa State's commitment to its mission, strengths and impact. While the university's core values have not changed since joining the association in 1958, the indicators used by AAU to rank its members have begun to favor institutions with medical schools and associated medical research funding.

This year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) alone will provide more than $40 billion in medical research funding, compared to $14.7 billion in 1990. The dramatic rate of increase in NIH funding over the last 30 years has far outpaced that of the USDA or National Science Foundation (NSF). (see graph)

Still, Iowa State ranks 16th in federal research expenditures among nearly 500 U.S. universities without a medical school and ranks in the top 10% in many key areas. (see sidebar) Iowa State faculty and staff earned a record $559 million in external funding in FY21, of which $231 million was research funding. When all research funding is considered equally, Iowa State ranks among the top 71 (or top 11%) of 655 U.S. research institutions and is among the top 100 worldwide receiving U.S. patents, again a testament to the innovation of its faculty and staff.

Iowa State also is one of only four universities contracted to manage a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory. The Ames Laboratory, specializing in materials development, is also the only program physically located on a university campus.

"Iowa State has always been and will continue to be a renowned research university," said President Wendy Wintersteen. "As the university known for 'science with practice,' our faculty perform cutting-edge research in diverse areas such as materials science, nanovaccines, genetics, cybersecurity, agricultural engineering and more. We remain committed to our land-grant mission of creating a world-class educational experience for our students and providing research and technical expertise to benefit society and Iowans in every corner of the state.

"Ultimately, our efforts are measured by the success of our students, the innovation of our faculty, and our service to Iowa and the world," Wintersteen said. "These metrics are not exclusive to any one institution or group of institutions."

 

[Gophers_4life]

Basically: if you're a PI doing something related to medical, they have grants for you.

If you're doing more basic science/engineering/math, you're going to have to fight tooth and nail to get funded by the NSF.


USDA also looks like they award roughly the same grant money to the Ag schools in all states. So at some level, it isn't necessarily nationally competitive bidding.

 

[Word]

[MODS: please move this thread if you feel it appropriate to do so. I am initially putting it in football for the following reasons: 1) membership in the AAU has long been cited by many people in conference realignment discussions as a "baseline" for consideration in joining the Big Ten, and 2) that topic obviously directly impacts all teams, but particularly football, and is something that I think most would be interested to know, which leads to 3) the football board I feel like by far sees the most traffic]


https://www.inside.iastate.edu/article/2022/04/21/aau

Iowa State University of Science and Technology today announced it has concluded its membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU).

The decision to end AAU membership is driven by Iowa State's commitment to its mission, strengths and impact. While the university's core values have not changed since joining the association in 1958, the indicators used by AAU to rank its members have begun to favor institutions with medical schools and associated medical research funding.

This year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) alone will provide more than $40 billion in medical research funding, compared to $14.7 billion in 1990. The dramatic rate of increase in NIH funding over the last 30 years has far outpaced that of the USDA or National Science Foundation (NSF). (see graph)

Still, Iowa State ranks 16th in federal research expenditures among nearly 500 U.S. universities without a medical school and ranks in the top 10% in many key areas. (see sidebar) Iowa State faculty and staff earned a record $559 million in external funding in FY21, of which $231 million was research funding. When all research funding is considered equally, Iowa State ranks among the top 71 (or top 11%) of 655 U.S. research institutions and is among the top 100 worldwide receiving U.S. patents, again a testament to the innovation of its faculty and staff.

Iowa State also is one of only four universities contracted to manage a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory. The Ames Laboratory, specializing in materials development, is also the only program physically located on a university campus.

"Iowa State has always been and will continue to be a renowned research university," said President Wendy Wintersteen. "As the university known for 'science with practice,' our faculty perform cutting-edge research in diverse areas such as materials science, nanovaccines, genetics, cybersecurity, agricultural engineering and more. We remain committed to our land-grant mission of creating a world-class educational experience for our students and providing research and technical expertise to benefit society and Iowans in every corner of the state.

"Ultimately, our efforts are measured by the success of our students, the innovation of our faculty, and our service to Iowa and the world," Wintersteen said. "These metrics are not exclusive to any one institution or group of institutions."

I know it's relatively easy to get in there. Not sure if that's changed over the years.

 

[fmlizard]

[MODS: please move this thread if you feel it appropriate to do so. I am initially putting it in football for the following reasons: 1) membership in the AAU has long been cited by many people in conference realignment discussions as a "baseline" for consideration in joining the Big Ten, and 2) that topic obviously directly impacts all teams, but particularly football, and is something that I think most would be interested to know, which leads to 3) the football board I feel like by far sees the most traffic]


https://www.inside.iastate.edu/article/2022/04/21/aau

Iowa State University of Science and Technology today announced it has concluded its membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU).

The decision to end AAU membership is driven by Iowa State's commitment to its mission, strengths and impact. While the university's core values have not changed since joining the association in 1958, the indicators used by AAU to rank its members have begun to favor institutions with medical schools and associated medical research funding.

This year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) alone will provide more than $40 billion in medical research funding, compared to $14.7 billion in 1990. The dramatic rate of increase in NIH funding over the last 30 years has far outpaced that of the USDA or National Science Foundation (NSF). (see graph)

Still, Iowa State ranks 16th in federal research expenditures among nearly 500 U.S. universities without a medical school and ranks in the top 10% in many key areas. (see sidebar) Iowa State faculty and staff earned a record $559 million in external funding in FY21, of which $231 million was research funding. When all research funding is considered equally, Iowa State ranks among the top 71 (or top 11%) of 655 U.S. research institutions and is among the top 100 worldwide receiving U.S. patents, again a testament to the innovation of its faculty and staff.

Iowa State also is one of only four universities contracted to manage a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory. The Ames Laboratory, specializing in materials development, is also the only program physically located on a university campus.

"Iowa State has always been and will continue to be a renowned research university," said President Wendy Wintersteen. "As the university known for 'science with practice,' our faculty perform cutting-edge research in diverse areas such as materials science, nanovaccines, genetics, cybersecurity, agricultural engineering and more. We remain committed to our land-grant mission of creating a world-class educational experience for our students and providing research and technical expertise to benefit society and Iowans in every corner of the state.

"Ultimately, our efforts are measured by the success of our students, the innovation of our faculty, and our service to Iowa and the world," Wintersteen said. "These metrics are not exclusive to any one institution or group of institutions."

Or, put another way, medical research funding has roughly tracked inflation, and has lagged tuition increases by a ton...look at the breathtaking tuition hikes at ISU from only 1990-2012 in the table below. The 2022 numbers are $9,634 and $25,446.

Perhaps they should better fund the Econ department.

 

[Gophers1992]

Iowa State will never be in the big ten regardless. That addition would make absolutely no sense.

 

[Plato]

Does Perdue have an affiliated medical school?
I do not think so yet I believe they are in the AAU.

 

[cemba99]

The primary Indiana School of Medicine campus is located in Indianapolis - kind of a "collaborative" effort between the University of Indiana and Purdue University (who is definitely an AAU member). It is more than a medical school, it offers various undergrad and graduate degrees. This is the "UIPUI" school with a basketball team that the Gophers have played in the past.

Nebraska is the only non-AAU member in the B1G, they left (or were booted, depending on who you believe) over ten years ago (just after they joined the B1G). Their medical school is in Omaha, but is considered part of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln (i.e. - it is not part of University of Nebraska - Omaha)

 

[Gophers_4life]

The primary Indiana School of Medicine campus is located in Indianapolis - kind of a "collaborative" effort between the University of Indiana and Purdue University (who is definitely an AAU member). It is more than a medical school, it offers various undergrad and graduate degrees. This is the "UIPUI" school with a basketball team that the Gophers have played in the past.

Nebraska is the only non-AAU member in the B1G, they left (or were booted, depending on who you believe) over ten years ago (just after they joined the B1G). Their medical school is in Omaha, but is considered part of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln (i.e. - it is not part of University of Nebraska - Omaha)

UNMC is not considered/counted as part of Lincoln (or Omaha as you correctly point out).

That is essentially the main reason that Nebraska got booted from the AAU.


There are many states where the main, public medical school, and associated medical research (and massive NIH grants) are a separate campus from the flagship public university. In fact, probably most are like this to some extent. Some are adjacent or very close to the main campus, but some are in completely separate cities. And in some cases it's a clearly, completely different institution altogether.

Oregon, for example, has the Oregon Health & Science University. This is completely separate from U of OR and OR St.

Indiana, like you mention, has a combined, collaborative public campus in Indy that allows students to take programs from both IU and PU (hence the name). It also houses the main instruction/clinical and research campus of the IU School of Medicine.

However, that university system has decided to count that (NIH funded) medical research under the Bloomington campus. I don't know what their decision making process on that was, but perhaps for appearances. You can see this here, for example: https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf22311/assets/data-tables/tables/nsf22311-tab025.pdf

The funding under "HHS" includes all NIH funding, and it's largely all under Bloomington. Very little counted towards IUPUI, and there is no separate entry in the table for IU Medical School.


Nebraska, on the other hand, even though they're in a nearly identical situation, in terms of geographical separation and university system, refuses to count the UNMC NIH grants under Lincoln. As you can see by the separate entries.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Does Perdue have an affiliated medical school?
I do not think so yet I believe they are in the AAU.

There are a few major public universities in AAU that have no medical school at all, or none right on that main campus.

This doesn't necessarily mean PI's employeed by that school cannot get NIH grants. But if a significant part of the research is clinical trials on humans, they'll need to partner with a PI at some kind of clinical facility, so it does make it harder (and this is considered when awarding/funding the grants).


For example, Cal (Berkeley) has no medical school. But one of the best medical research universities in the world is literally right across the bay, at UCSF. And there is plenty of collaboration. So does that matter much?

Georgia Tech is a very highly ranked university, also with no medical school. But there is collaboration with the medical school at Emory. And so on.

 

[alchemy2u]

There are a few major public universities in AAU that have no medical school at all, or none right on that main campus.

This doesn't necessarily mean PI's employeed by that school cannot get NIH grants. But if a significant part of the research is clinical trials on humans, they'll need to partner with a PI at some kind of clinical facility, so it does make it harder (and this is considered when awarding/funding the grants).


For example, Cal (Berkeley) has no medical school. But one of the best medical research universities in the world is literally right across the bay, at UCSF. And there is plenty of collaboration. So does that matter much?

Georgia Tech is a very highly ranked university, also with no medical school. But there is collaboration with the medical school at Emory. And so on.

What is your obsession with medical schools when it comes to research?

 

[Gophers_4life]

What is your obsession with medical schools when it comes to research?

?

I was responding to this:
"Does Perdue have an affiliated medical school?"

 

[Word]

This whole thread is kind of a moot point anyway. There is absolutely no reason to add ISU to the big ten in the first place.

 

[Gophers_4life]

This whole thread is kind of a moot point anyway. There is absolutely no reason to add ISU to the big ten in the first place.

The thread wasn't about bringing ISU into the Big Ten.

I thought that people would like to know that ISU is leaving the AAU, and mainly because the topic of AAU membership is so frequently brought up in discussions about adding new members to the Big Ten.