INFRASTRUCTURE, HUMAN RESOURCE, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT FACTOR EFFECTS ON FEDERAL R&D FUNDING AT STATE COMPREHENSIVE UNIVERSITIES

This study sought to add to the limited scholarship on factors that affect federal research and development (R&D) funding activities at state comprehensive universities (SCUs). Second, the study sought to inform R&D policy and practice at SCUs in assisting this scale of institutions in maximizing their federal award streams. This study examined 216 masters-level large and medium institutions, and doctoral universities that were members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. Four statistical models were developed and tested whereby a set of predictor variables were regressed to view their association with a set of R&D performance measures of interest to SCUs. As determined from the four models, previous success in securing federal R&D funding carried the most weight in predicting future success, ceteris paribus. Other significant predictors were the level of institutional funds channeled to R&D activities, number of sponsored program staff members, and the number of research universities in a state. Policy implications identified were that the federal government should continue to invest resources in the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research and in other programs as the National Institutes of Health Academic Research Enhancement Award. Such programs assist SCUs in securing federal R&D funds and many such institutions serve as gateways for underrepresented groups and individuals from low-socioeconomic backgrounds to access higher education. A policy implication for states established was that states should continue to invest in SCUs as these institutions educate the largest number of college students and many are open access institutions attracting students who may not have had a chance to matriculate at more selective research institutions. Institutional policy implications identified were that if SCUs wish to enter the highly competitive federal R&D funding arena, they should first conduct a thorough analysis of the campus mission and determine if there are enough institutional resources and desire to pursue federal R&D funding grant awards. Other arguably more attainable avenues of federal funding that SCUs could explore are science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education projects and programs that train the future workforce. In addition, SCUs may also serve as flow-through subaward recipients from research institutions that may subcontract appropriate portions of larger federal R&D awards to the smaller SCUs. Such subawards can increase an SCU’s external funding portfolio and also provide undergraduate research opportunities at such institutions