Credit: Photo: Mike Peters

Montclair State Joins in Call to Close Growing Innovation Gap

165 university leaders ask Washington to restore critical investments in research and education

Prompted by concern over federal budget cuts to research and higher education at a time when other nations are increasing investment in those areas, Montclair State University President Susan A. Cole recently joined 164 fellow university presidents and chancellors in calling for Congress to close the nation’s growing innovation deficit.

“Our nation’s role as the world’s innovation leader is in serious jeopardy,” Cole and her colleagues wrote in an open letter to Congress and President Obama. “Closing this innovation deficit – the widening gap between needed and actual investments in research and education – must be a national imperative.”

The letter noted that the rate of growth of U.S. research and development investments is currently outstripped by those of countries like China, Singapore and South Korea and that the U.S. has fallen to 12th among developed countries in the share of young adults who hold college degrees.

The open letter, along with additional information, is available at: innovationdeficit.org.

Read the full press release.