EDITORIAL: Research initiative could boost UT-RGV, Valley
Source: The Monitor
A proposal by Gov. Greg Abbott to create a Governor’s University Research Initiative could help to draw top academics to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and economically boost our region.
Abbott last week announced he wants to eliminate the Emerging Technology Fund (ETF) and use its balance to establish this new initiative, which would provide matching funds to help higher education institutions in Texas. The end result would be that the money would help recruit “prestigious, nationally-recognized researchers to their faculty —which would both elevate Texas’ public universities and serve as catalysts for economic development” the governor’s office said.
UT-RGV President Guy Bailey told the Brownsville Herald that he’s excited about the plan, which he believes could help the new institution “recruit faculty to advance learning,” as well as improve research.
“We look forward to working with him and the Legislature as the proposal works its way through the process,” Bailey told Herald reporter Victoria Brito.
We look forward to watching this as well.
Because if Abbott’s plan works, Texas would be home to five of the Top 10 public universities in the nation. And we certainly hope that UT-RGV will be on that list.
The new university, which opens in fall 2015, raised the bar academically and research-wise when it announced it was opening the South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, as well as its collaboration with SpaceX via STARGATE. Further funding from the state could undoubtedly allow more research-type initiatives to occur here and that would benefit students and our economy by drawing the best of the best to the Rio Grande Valley.
Under Abbott’s plan: the ETF’s existing portfolio would be transferred to the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company, which is chaired by the comptroller; 50 percent of the ETF’s unexpended balances would be reallocated to the Higher Education Coordinating Board to fund the Governor’s University Research Initiative. The remaining 50 percent would be reallocated to the Texas Enterprise Fund to enhance the state’s ability to recruit and retain businesses and job opportunities to Texas.
If approved by the Legislature, matching funds would be available to Texas public universities for the recruitment of Nobel Laureates and National Academy members, especially in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM research, which Bailey has said will be a focus of this new university. And, we hope, would make it eligible for funding.