Requests for Comment by the Legislative Analyst

Issues

1. The President should comment on UMB's consistently modest extramural funding projections, which are regularly exceeded and have the effect of understating the budget.

The analyst is correct in noting that our FY 2008 research attainment of $450 million was about 9.5% over what our faculty had accomplished in FY 2007.  FY 2007 had shown an increase of 8.1% for FY 2006.  For FY 2009 and FY 2010 we are indeed anticipating only modest growth, largely because UMB has run out of research space.  As I indicated in my testimony, the Bohanan Commission estimates that we are approximately 1,000,000 NASF short of research and laboratory space to support our current programs. 

Our original FY 2010 goal for externally sponsored research, which was set in FY 2004, was about $500 million.  That goal was established by projecting an annual rate of increase of 5%.  However, we did not meet that rate of increase in FY 2006 and only recovered in FY 2007 to approximately the level we had achieved in FY 2005. While we saw outstanding rates of increase in the last two years, there are no guarantees.

According to an old Chinese proverb, 'Predicting is difficult -- especially the future."  In the current fiscal environment, especially with our severe shortage of research space, I continue to argue for prudence in our budgeting for sponsored research.

2. The President should comment on how the restricted fund allowance figure was determined.

The restricted fund allowance included projected increases in fringe benefits costs, but otherwise reflected the conservative approach described in the response to question 1. 

3. The President should comment on the high cost of medical, dental, and law degrees in general, and, specifically, on UMB's efforts to increase affordability to students.

By state and Regents' practice, tuition must comprise about 30% of our State support budget.  [In the 1990s that ratio was 90% state general funds to 10% tuition.] As we have raised tuition to help meet rising costs of mandatory increases in fringe benefits, utilities, safety and security, so too we have increased our institutional aid, all of which is need-based, and we have used our capital campaign to raise scholarship funds from the private sector. We have also striven to include our graduate and professional students in various State of Maryland financial aid programs which by and large are only available to undergraduate students.

The UMB Deans and I, along with our colleagues across the country, regularly decry the high cost of professional education in the United States, and the burdens that these costs place on our young doctors, lawyers and dentists, and for that matter, on our pharmacists, social workers, nurses and biomedical researchers.  We have worked through our various professional associations to lobby for federal relief in terms of "loan-assistance-repayment programs' especially for graduates who are willing to practice in low-income areas or otherwise engage in public service, and/or in areas, like nursing, where there are serious workforce shortages.  We agree with the analyst that this is a very difficult balancing act, and one that so far has eluded attempts at solutions. 

 4. The President should comment on ongoing efforts by UMB to increase revenue from technology transfer.

Technological discoveries that have potential value in the marketplace are another area where predicting is difficult.  As the pharmaceutical houses are fond of reminding us, drug discoveries and biomedical devices that turn out to have substantial commercial applications are rare and require significant upfront investment before they achieve financial rewards. In fact, Alexander MacKerell, Grollman-Glick Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the UM School of Pharmacy and director of the Computer-Aided Design Center has received $2.5 million in funding from the NSF for a cyber-infrastructure project that is aimed at making drug development more efficient by creating software tools to help analyze and categorize therapeutic drug opportunities from human genome and protein data.

UMB is fortunate in having many talented researchers who currently disclose about 100 to 120 potentially patent and licensure-worthy discoveries each year.  We have increased our technology development staff to help commercialize these discoveries, and have also sought and received assistance through TEDCO, various federal programs and private philanthropy to help cover the upfront costs for patent protection and marketing. 

We have also benefited from the presence of the UMB BioPark and its ability to attract pharmaceutical companies and other potential investors in our intellectual property, and to house start-ups. 

We have seen steady growth in licensure revenue, and we hope that this will continue as the stream of invention disclosures continues to increase.  Much of this growth, of course, will depend on the overall health of the pharmaceutical industry and other parts of the economy. 

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