Wrighton joins other university leaders urging Washington to close ‘innovation deficit’

Deeply concerned about an “innovation deficit” that is threatening the nation’s economic growth, Mark S. Wrighton, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, and Timothy M. Wolfe, president of the University of Missouri System, sent a joint letter last month to Missouri’s congressional delegation urging their support in helping close this innovation gap.

Noting the “erosion of federal investment in research and education” at a time when other nations are pouring resources into these areas, Wrighton and Wolfe wrote: “Investments in research and education are not inconsistent with long-term deficit reduction … they are vital to it.”

In their Aug. 8 letter to Missouri’s leaders in D.C., Wrighton and Wolfe continued: “Missouri and the rest of the nation need your help to ensure that the Federal Government makes robust investments in the future. We need your leadership in the creation of a thoughtful regulatory and legal framework to guide and encourage economic growth and job creation.”

“Our competitive edge in research, technology development, and implementing technology in the marketplace is being threatened. The decline in federal investment will have serious long-term consequences: a less prepared, less highly skilled U.S. workforce, fewer U.S.-based scientific and technological breakthroughs, fewer U.S.-based patents, and fewer U.S. start-ups, products, and jobs,” Wrighton and Wolfe wrote.

Wrighton and Wolfe also recently joined more than 160 university presidents and chancellors in signing an open letter to President Barack Obama and Congress asking Washington’s leaders to restore federal investments in higher education and research.

In that letter, which appeared July 31 as an advertisement in Politico, the nation’s higher education leaders wrote: “Closing this innovation deficit – the widening gap between needed and actual investments – must be a national imperative.”

The Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) coordinated the letter.

The university presidents and chancellors, whose schools are members of the AAU and APLU and represent all 50 states, noted in their letter that investments in higher education and research lead to the types of innovation and new technologies that power the nation’s economy, create jobs, improve health and strengthen national security, ensuring that the U.S. maintains its role as global leader.

“Throughout our history, this nation has kept the promise of a better tomorrow to each generation. This has been possible because of our economic prosperity based in large part on America’s role as global innovation leader. Failing to deal with the innovation deficit will pass to future generations the burdens of lost leadership in innovation, economic decline, and limited job opportunities,” the presidents and chancellors wrote.

“We call upon you to reject unsound budget cuts and recommit to strong and sustained investments in research and education. Only then can we ensure that our nation’s promise of a better tomorrow endures.”

To read the open letter or for more about the innovation deficit, visit here. To read Wrighton and Wolfe’s letter, visit here.