Banding Together for Research

A university's reputation depends largely on the quality of its research, and inflation and cutbacks in federal funding are jeopardizing the future of that research at institutions like Harvard.

Determined to face these economic realities, a group of private universities and foundations has banded together, preparing a case in support of continued academic research.

The group hopes to attract public attention and increased federal funds to the support of such research, and it seems clear that the united effort of the institutions will provide a far stronger public impact than any individual study would.

Harvard and a few of the other participating universities--Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Cornell, Columbia and Chicago--are currently preparing reports on various aspects of academic research, to be presented at a meeting in December.

It is not yet clear whether the group will present specific recommendations, such as increased resource-sharing among universities, or more general ones.