Opportunity at TAMU

The Houston Chronicle:

The university’s research program was one of those areas. It is a huge pot of money — $604 million in sponsored research for fiscal year 2008 at the flagship campus and its affiliated state agencies.

At stake, in the mind of many faculty researchers, was the question of whether the university or the system would control the money. Now, the grants are administered by the university or one of several related agencies.

Located in College Station, the system office oversees all 11 schools in the A&M system, along with the agencies and a health science center. But McKinney ratcheted up fears that his office would interfere with university business last month, when he suggested combining his job with Murano’s — in effect, giving the chancellor control of the university.

Monday, Foster said he didn’t support combining the jobs, but that did little to quell the concern.

“He who controls the money controls a lot of things, so I think they (McKinney and the regents) wanted to have more control over research,” said Bill Flores, president and CEO of Phoenix Exploration and a 1976 graduate of A&M.
Research spawns not only money for administrative costs, but also the potential for lucrative commercialization deals, Flores said. “There’s just a lot of opportunity to put money in the system.”

All that indirect cost money isn't being used efficiently now. Just think of the things we could do for the System. Vision 1920 wonders if we really have to let the PIs control how the direct costs are spent...