Competition between colleges and universities has become increasingly keen. From attracting students and competing for top faculty to getting a piece of decreasing state and federal monies, these organizations are finding themselves in competition with increasing numbers of institutions. Factors beyond the realm of academe, such as the costs of health care, building prisons, and balancing the national budget, are having a direct impact on outside revenue sources for colleges and universities. Whde certain of these pressures have been greater on some institutions than on others, virtually every institution with a significant research component has witnessed a dramatic increase in competition for research dollars from all sources in recent years. In a 1996 National Science Foundation report that surveyed thiny-six research universities and included interviews at nine research universities, administrators were pessimistic about the future of research funding, especially basic research (Taylor and Schmidtlein, 1996). They felt that support for research itself and indirect cost recovery rates would continue to decline, affecting not only faculty but also graduate students and those beyond the campus who benefit from the results of faculty research. Of course, all this does not mean research is a lost cause; it means that institutions seeking to ensure the continued quality of their research in the face of this reality will have to become more creative, coordinated, and focused in their quest for research dollars.
One strategy that is critical to the success of any research support effort today is the careful integration of an institution's strategic plan with its various fundraising arms. Absent such a focused, unified approach, institutions will find themselves competing for scarce dollars in an ad hoc fashion, without any NEW DllECnONs FOI HIGHEL E w U n O N . no 91. Summer 1'9% 0 Jasry-B.u Publuhen 33