Tapping a hidden resource: Academic R&D

September 11, 2007

Eric Singsaas is the kind of professor you might not expect to find at a University of Wisconsin System campus outside Madison or Milwaukee. He's a Ph.D botanist and biochemist at UW-Stevens Point with expertise in the biological production of hydrocarbons ordinarily made by plants. That puts him on the cusp of the emerging biofuels industry, a potential source of economic growth for Wisconsin.

But Singsaas is still very much a typical UW System professor in one major way: He's essentially tied to the classroom. With four classes and all the preparation time that goes into teaching them, Singsaas is hard-pressed to find time to collaborate with other researchers, write grants, manage a laboratory, and advise private industry - all things his peers at larger institutions do as a matter of course.

If Singsaas could be relieved of even part of his teaching load, he might attract 10 to 20 times his salary in research grants. That could pay for backfilling his teaching duties and much more. And if more professors at Stevens Point and other UW System campuses could conduct more research, pockets of research excellence outside Madison and Milwaukee would be quicker to grow - and to seed local economies.

Tom Still

Full Story: http://wistechnology.com/article.php?id=4167