State of the System
The online magazine of the University of Texas System
Ahead of the Curve.
How the UT System is Keeping Texas Competitive Today and Tomorrow.
Q&A with Dr. Keith McDowell, Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology Transfer
In simplest terms, what is the Competitiveness Initiative?
The University of Texas System needed to enhance what we call our research capacity. When you have research capacity,
you have the ability to go out and obtain other kinds of funds, particularly if your research capacity is state of the
art and at the highest levels of what can be done. Research capacity can be lots of things, but principally it’s
facilities and most of the Competitiveness Initiative is for funding such state-of-the-art facilities. Ultimately, it’s
the people we’re after — because without the people, those facilities don’t do very much for you.
It sounds like those people are mostly scientists and engineers?
It can involve lots of other people, because we know that innovation — and innovation is what we’re really after in
the end — also involves taking the research discovery and moving it through what we call the commercialization
pipeline. That takes a number of people from different aspects of business. It takes everyone to make the whole
Competitiveness Initiative work, even though it’s centered on science and technology.
Does the state have a part in this along with the federal government?
Texas has contributed very significantly, through its Emerging Technology Fund and other programs. For example, the
Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas is a state program that will enhance our Competitiveness
Initiative. That’s going to be approximately $300 million a year for 10 years, or $3 billion — an enormous program.
We’re already one of the world leaders in cancer research; certainly the UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is the best
in the world. With this new program we will be the international leaders in cancer research, so this is another
tremendous addition to the initiative.
Are other university systems doing anything on the scale of UT’s Competitiveness Initiative?
Not that I know of. Universities are always trying to expand their research capacity, and today this focuses
particularly on the university-industry relationship. I agree that it should, because the growth of research capacity
around the country has been outstripping the ability to obtain federal funding. The university must develop a much
stronger interaction with industry, which is providing research dollars at a rate that can match the growing research
capacity. The Competitiveness Initiative incorporates this thinking about industry’s role, but also does much more.
Ultimately it’s in a class by itself.
Dr. Keith McDowell, Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology Transfer, UT System
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