Nov 18, 2025
Federal and state governments play significant roles in both public and private universities. The federal role in research is, at once, old enough to now span three-plus generations and yet recent enough that many people—ironically, those who rely on it most—are unaware of its origins. Recent actions by the federal government to cut billions of dollars from previously-approved research grants to universities, academic medical centers, and independent research institutes came as a shock to many, partly because they had assumed the process to be more or less engrained in law and policy and one of the ways by which research was funded.
Richard McCormick—three-time president of major research universities and an historian—offers a clear and compelling account of how the federal role in research began during World War II and evolved over the decades that followed. In today’s INNOVATORS, he presents that historical portrait and, in doing so, suggests that recent shifts in federal policy may be less surprising than some have expressed, as they are, at least in part, in keeping with the public's changed and changing broader understanding and appreciation of higher education.
This is the second in a year-long series of INNOVATORS podcasts that began with the commentary of Daniel Linzer on the more prominent features of support for scientific and biomedical research. In the next podcast, the federal role of support for research in independent research institutes is examined.
INNOVATORS Guest: Richard L. McCormick, PhD, President Emeritus, Board of Governors and Professor of History and Education at Rutgers University