FEBRUARY 28, 2022 — This op-ed by Bernard Arulanandam, immunologist in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and vice president for research, economic development, and knowledge enterprise at UTSA, originally appeared in the San Antonio Express-News.
UTSA’s recent Tier One designation from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education is great news for San Antonio. It underscores the university’s transformative research, validates its ability to fuel economic development and social mobility, and solidifies the city’s standing as a destination for innovation.
UTSA targeted the Tier One classification as part of its strategic plan to become a great public research university. Today, only 146 higher education institutions have the R1 (“very high research activity”) designation, placing UTSA among the top 4% of research institutions nationwide. Among them, UTSA has one of the largest Hispanic student populations.
Those who have been watching UTSA know that it is experiencing tremendous growth.
The university’s research expenditures have increased 106% over the last four years, from $68 million in FY 2017 to $140 million in FY 2021. This funding enables the innovative approaches inherent to UTSA’s research-intensive mission.
At the same time, UTSA has successfully attracted world-class faculty members to San Antonio. The university currently has over 700 active faculty researchers—including 13 National Academies memberships—and 4,800 graduate students who are involved in some type of research activity.
In recent years, UTSA established the School of Data Science, the National Security Collaboration Center, the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute, the Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design and the College for Health, Community and Policy. Each is fueling groundbreaking research collaborations and preparing students for a rapidly-changing workforce.
More broadly, they are examples of UTSA’s commitment to addressing the intractable challenges facing our world.
Society is facing complex issues at the local and national levels including health disparities, the digital divide, a vulnerable supply chain and an aging critical infrastructure.
Tier One universities are well-positioned to develop bold solutions for these challenges. They secure more research dollars, attract world-class faculty and lead transdisciplinary research programs—benefits that create more experiential learning programs for students, expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem and propel continued growth.
Today, UTSA fosters strong public-private partnerships that blend basic and applied research to produce disruptive innovations that scale and deploy at speed to secure San Antonio’s future.
San Antonio’s Research & Development League, for example, is leveraging the talent, investment, ideas and entrepreneurship of local businesses and community organizations to improve the quality of life for its 1.5 million residents. As a founding member of the league, UTSA researchers are pursuing federal funding for collaborative projects and employing scientific methods to inform policy that will impact urban planning.
Meanwhile, the San Antonio Partnership for Precision Therapeutics, a billion-dollar investment driven by UTSA, UT Health San Antonio, Southwest Research Institute and Texas Biomedical Research Institute, is leveraging the partners’ expertise and resources to develop personalized therapies for many challenging public health issues like infectious diseases, diabetes and cancer.
Across Texas, our Institute of Economic Development is building community and business resilience. Last year, it reported a direct economic impact of $3 billion and helped create nearly 11,000 new jobs, work that has become even more paramount during the pandemic.
With higher rates of educational attainment at the forefront of the university’s mission, UTSA is anchoring San Antonio’s knowledge economy. Its focused work directly supports greater:SATX’s regional economic development plan to attract and retain businesses that generate bold ideas in bioscience, aerospace, manufacturing, cybersecurity and technology.
At the same time, UTSA is fulfilling its founding mission to provide a top-quality education. It is creating life-changing educational opportunities for the students who will join, grow and prosper in the city’s thriving knowledge economy.
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The San Antonio Military Health and Universities Research Forum (SURF) attracts presenters from around the nation to showcase the work of students, trainees, faculty and staff. The mission of the SURF conference is to “advance research collaborations among academic, military, and industry partners to improve health outcomes and readiness.”
TBDThe NHERI Summer Institute is a free event for early-career faculty, NHERI Graduate Student Council, K-12 educators from the San Antonio area, engineers, and researchers to learn more about the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) community.
La Villita Room (DBB 1.116,) Durango Building, Main CampusConnect with peer mentors and fellow first-gen and transfer students, and learn how you can join UTSA's First-Gen programs for the Fall 2023 semester.
Mentoring Hub (MS 2.02.02,) Multidisciplinary Studies Building, Main CampusBuilding the Dual Language Leader Symposium will provide a safe space for current and aspiring leaders to learn best practices, theories, policies, and systems that support a dual language bilingual education.
UTSA Southwest Campus, 300 Augusta St.Streaming of Spray the Word that will conclude with a discussion with San Antonio's Poet Laureate, Andrea "Vocab" Sanderson.
Aula Canaria (BVB 1.328,) Buena Vista Street Building, Downtown CampusCelebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at our very own street fair - Calle UTSA. We will have activities, performances, food, music, and pinatas to break open! All free to UTSA students, faculty, and staff.
Student Union Paseo, Main CampusThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
