Note: Michael Nichols has replaced John Gardner as the Vice President for Research and Economic Development at the Unviersity of Missouri. John now serves Washington State University as Vice President for Economoic Development and WSU Extension.
When the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars Align...
The Land Grant University and Extension’s Third Wave
The Opportunity of Agricultural Research
Missouri Meets the New Economy
The Promise and Burden of Research
When Strategy and Chaos Converge
Recruiting Talent as Well as Business
Columbia is known traditionally as Missouri’s college town. Such towns are often affectionately seen by their states as quirky -- or even a bit smug. But being quirky is suspiciously similar to being innovative. And with a little attitude adjustment, being smug can be morphed into the confidence needed to move forward in an exciting new economy. I believe that this traditional college town will continue to be on the cutting edge of Missouri’s economic development.
Ask where the most vibrant U.S. economies have developed over the past generation, and you’ll typically hear California’s ‘Silicon Valley,’ San Diego, Boston, Austin, or the North Carolina ‘Research Triangle.’
What if you ask the same question about Missouri? Would you say St. Louis? Kansas City? They are indeed our largest population centers. Major population centers are certainly important to our nation’s manufacturing-based economy. However, it is the research university, such as the University of Missouri, that are the linchpins of our new knowledge-based economy. Each of the cities listed as national examples are anchored by a top-notch research university.
Why is this? Research universities are now the dominant source of cutting-edge scientific discoveries. The key to developing a system and culture to get these discoveries successfully passed to the private sector for final development and marketing. These discoveries thus lead to economic growth and innovation that in turn benefit universities’ communities. Consider the numbers of new Missouri businesses formed, or where the patents were filed from 1975-1999 with data from the Department of Economic Development (see maps). They are clustered around the two urban centers of Kansas City and St. Louis (which host public and private research universities), the University of Missouri campuses in Columbia and Rolla, and counties which have a presence of public higher education.
Like other progressive states, Missouri is nurturing its own university-based centers of the new economy. The University of Missouri has three thriving research parks, in St. Charles, Ft. Leonard Wood and, the most recently, Discovery Ridge, located just south of Columbia and the UMSL park on the north side of campus in St. Louis These parks provide vital connections between universities and their surrounding communities. Tenant companies residing in these research parks take new discoveries and technologies from the University setting to the private marketplace, providing the kind of skilled job growth that vibrant cities crave.
In the years to come, its my hope that Columbia and the other Missouri host cities for higher education will continue to earn great respect for what they can contribute to the region, state and country. They have the type of residents, the universities, and the setting to be a powerful force in Missouri’s new economy.
(a version of this blog appeared in the July 1 edition of the Columbia Business Times)
Regards, John ~ 2:53 pm
