Narrative (Continued)
Others: A number of other activities take place that are important for economic development efforts, though rather more indirectly. In the College of Humanities and Social Science, the Southern Regional Climate Center, the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program, and the Louisiana Office of State Climatology—all of which are based in the Department of Geography and Anthropology—work together to provide short- and long-term climate data to various businesses, private industries, individuals, and other stakeholders for the state and the region.
In addition, an important consideration for strategic economic development and encouraging business growth is public safety. The Highway Safety Research Group (HSRG), a division of the Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department within the College of Business, works with over 180 law enforcement agencies in the state concerning traffic safety. The HSRG helps provide data to many local, state, and federal agencies. The HSRG assists the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program Division of Louisiana State Police with reporting Commercial Motor Vehicle Crash data to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Also, working with the Department of Transportation and Development, the HSRG assists with reporting fatal crash data to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Utilizing business intelligence systems developed in-house, the HSRG analyzes crash-related data at the request of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, the Louisiana Division of the Federal Highway Safety Administration, the Louisiana State Police, sheriffs’ offices, and police departments. By performing safety studies and supplying crash data, the HSRG has assisted many projects successfully to decrease the number of fatal and serious injury crashes occurring on Louisiana’s roadways, making Louisiana more attractive to potential employers.
Likewise, the LSU Office of Social Service Research and Development has partnered with the Office of the Mayor-President, the district attorney, and local law enforcement to develop and implement the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination program to help reduce violent crime in socioeconomically distressed communities in Baton Rouge. Crime and fear of crime are major impediments to successful implementation of economic development strategies, and this community violence reduction strategy potentially has important implications for future economic development initiatives in communities where it is most needed.
Finally, the College of Human Sciences and Education has more than 25 distinct community engagement and grant-supported programs in place that address academic preparedness among the K-12 student population and among existing educators. Sound educational foundations are vital to the future of the state and local workforce needs, and while it is more difficult to discern any immediate impact of these activities on economic development, the long term expectation is that such efforts will positively impact economic development in the local community and throughout the state over the long term.
Business Innovations and Startups. LSU retains an active and expanding portfolio of business innovations and startups. Element C, item v documents the establishment of one new start-up in FY11. The number of surviving companies is nine. LSU also fully executed two SBIR awards and one STTR award in FY12.
Table 4: Dollar Amount of Research and Development Expenditures in Louisiana's Key Economic Development Industries |
|||||
2013 Annual Report: Five-year average of FY 2007-08 through 2011-2012 (in thousands) |
|||||
Federal |
State |
Industry |
Institution |
Other |
Total |
$78,208 |
$84,792 |
$10,694 |
$88,113 |
$12,305 |
$274,112 |
$87,469 |
$79,217 |
$11,046 |
$93,188 |
$17,055 |
$287,975 |
$94,621 |
$74,624 |
$20,110 |
$92,394 |
$1,008 |
$282,757 |
$95,167 |
$71,747 |
$22,132 |
$91,253 |
$1,101 |
$281,400 |
$90,001 |
$73,461 |
$22,572 |
$92,396 |
$647 |
$279,077 |
$89,093 |
$76,768 |
$17,311 |
$91,469 |
$6,423 |
$281,064 |
*NSF modified its survey fields beginning FY 09-10; LSU reclassified R&D funding sources to appropriately reflect these changes |
Peer Comparison. Two data sources are used to compare LSU's research productivity to its peers: the National Science Foundation (NSF) for federal expenditures and the National Center of Education Statistics IPEDS data on total expenditures. Using these two sources, LSU can be compared to the SREB 4 Year 1 Peer Institutions. In this context, LSU ranked 18 out of 40, with $97,517,000 in federal research expenditures, and 13 out of 39, with $262,677,656 in total research expenditures (Table 5). In short, these data indicate LSU compares very favorably to its peers in research expenditures and, thus, research productivity.
The technology transfer activity at LSU compared to its peer institutions is provided in Table 4.
These data were secured from the AUTM U.S. Licensing Survey: FY12. These data may be different from NSF reported data for a number of reasons; for example, the data reported for LSU to NSF includes all of the LSU System Baton Rouge campuses. In addition, numerous institutions provided in this table do not report to the AUTM survey, and for others, the scope of the reporting unit is ambiguous. Nevertheless, the raw number of inventions disclosed, patents issued, licenses and options issued, and startups are provided in the table. In addition, these figures are standardized by LSU research expenditures to provide comparability. It is notable that the meaningfulness of these comparisons is unclear given the questionable comparability of data sources across the reporting units.
Table 5: Total and Federal Research Expenditures: LSU vs. SREB 4 Year 1 Peer Institutions |
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2010-2011 Research Expenditures |
|||||
Institution |
Total |
Federal |
|||
Auburn University |
$129,023,989 |
$59,559,000 |
|||
Clemson University |
$144,236,963 |
$52,919,000 |
|||
Florida International University |
$59,579,377 |
$65,446,000 |
|||
Florida State University |
$158,549,153 |
$140,850,000 |
|||
George Mason University |
$74,990,459 |
$65,301,000 |
|||
Georgia State University |
$97,452,722 |
$28,210,000 |
|||
Louisiana State University |
$262,677,656 |
13/39 |
$97,517,000 |
18/40 |
|
Mississippi State University |
$173,509,811 |
$98,998,000 |
|||
North Carolina State University at Raleigh |
$253,620,692 |
$155,293,000 |
|||
Oklahoma State University-Main Campus |
$122,584,424 |
$81,855,000 |
|||
Old Dominion University |
$6,997,079 |
$39,534,000 |
|||
Texas A & M University-College Station |
$502,438,272 |
$291,812,000 |
|||
Texas Tech University |
$136,842,075 |
$35,191,000 |
|||
The University of Alabama |
$55,068,280 |
$32,999,000 |
|||
The University of Tennessee |
$280,311,733 |
$111,942,000 |
|||
The University of Texas at Arlington |
$61,475,926 |
$30,659,000 |
|||
The University of Texas at Austin |
$482,660,863 |
$355,437,000 |
|||
The University of Texas at Dallas |
$82,607,919 |
$33,216,000 |
|||
University of Alabama at Birmingham |
$370,984,347 |
$344,164,000 |
|||
University of Arkansas |
$124,556,347 |
$37,587,000 |
|||
University of Central Florida |
$115,051,584 |
$69,098,000 |
|||
University of Delaware |
N/A |
$118,673,000 |
|||
University of Florida |
$622,863,000 |
$306,349,000 |
|||
University of Georgia |
$337,789,631 |
$137,328,000 |
|||
University of Houston |
$115,777,978 |
$59,580,000 |
|||
University of Kentucky |
$305,713,001 |
$179,161,000 |
|||
University of Louisville |
$152,357,000 |
$96,010,000 |
|||
University of Maryland-College Park |
$416,683,464 |
$338,780,000 |
|||
University of Memphis |
$40,355,997 |
$20,348,000 |
|||
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
$500,924,315 |
$561,708,000 |
|||
University of North Carolina at Greensboro |
$19,772,521 |
$20,868,000 |
|||
University of North Texas |
$20,459,234 |
$14,754,000 |
|||
University of Oklahoma Norman Campus |
$113,558,000 |
$95,505,000 |
|||
University of South Carolina-Columbia |
$134,090,089 |
$103,296,000 |
|||
University of South Florida-Main Campus |
$276,479,512 |
$243,030,000 |
|||
University of Southern Mississippi |
$52,903,681 |
$40,984,000 |
|||
University of Virginia-Main Campus |
$353,781,413 |
$232,525,000 |
|||
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |
$312,655,623 |
$189,198,000 |
|||
West Virginia University |
$172,374,405 |
$88,419,000 |
|||
Average |
$201,151,540 |
$130,105,205 |
|||
Total: Source=IPEDS Data Center; Federal: Source: NSF |
|||||
Note: LSU includes LSU Agricultural Center, Hebert Law Center, and Pennington Biomedical Research Center. |
Measures of Accountability
State-wide
Information relating to the previously described research and the progress the institution has made is produced annually in the spring and reported to the Louisiana Board of Regents in the form of a Metrics Report (research expenditures) and Grad Act Report (institution-wide metrics).
Institutional
ORED is undergoing the institutional process for internal program review. In 2012, the review procedure initiated by the University Review and Assessment Council (URAC) included (1) a self-study [10], (2) external review by the vice provost for research at the University of Georgia [44], and 3) an internal review [45].
The results of this year-long examination identified the strengths and weaknesses of the office and provided an action plan designed to improve the impact of the office and focus it more clearly on institutional research priorities, such as “Conventional and Renewable Energy,” “Biological, Biotechnological, and Biomedical research,” and “Communication and Expression.”
The three reports were consistent in requesting additional funding to the office, refining the strategic plan for the office and developing a robust Annual Report. The ORED 2013 Action Plan is an example of incorporating the suggestions of all the reports into a product that will both increase ORED strategic initiatives and provide summary progress each year in the unit’s annual report.
Other measures used to assess the significant research efforts include faculty publications and presentations. Each year, as part of the institution’s assessment process, departments and colleges report this information as part of the unit reviews as outlined in the LSU Handbook of Institutional Effectiveness [46]. Additional aspects related to research done at LSU are contained in the compliance certificates for Core Requirement 2.5 and Comprehensive Standard 3.7.3.
NOTE: A full list of attachments is available in the first half of the narrative.