
Elizabeth Cantwell, president of Utah State University, speaks at the 2024 Research Day on the Hill event.
Create human capital. Contribute to national competitiveness. Drive economic development.
Those are three of the key roles Utah’s research institutions play in society, according to Taylor Randall, University of Utah president.
“When you invest in research faculty, this is what you are investing in,” Randall said during a presentation to the Utah Board of High Education during their Nov. 21, 2024, meeting.
Randall and Elizabeth Cantwell, president of Utah State University, joined together as the leaders of Utah’s two R1 institutions to discuss the importance of supporting research in the state and creating forward-thinking, collaborative research goals.
“To our knowledge, there’s never been a long-term alignment between the state’s economic development policy and industrial policy and our research and workforce objectives,” Randall said. “We do a very good job looking out two to three years, but if you want to shape the arc of technology, you have to look out probably 20 years and say, ‘Where do we think things are going and how do we align our research?’”
A commitment to collaborate
When it comes to Utah’s future, Cantwell and Randall see the life sciences as a field in which the state is well suited to innovate.
“The complementary nature of animal and human research is enormous,” Randall said. “If we make the investment in life sciences research, I think we’d see quicker-to-market drugs and all sorts of innovations if the U and USU put our resources together.”
Read more about the two presidents’ hopes for turning Utah into a national innovation hub and the role of undergraduate research in workforce development.

A University of Utah student shares research with President Taylor Randall during the Research on Capitol Hill event.
Opportunities to grow
To reap more benefits from these efforts, Randall noted the state will need to work to keep the companies that develop at its research institutions in Utah. He pointed out that in the late ’60s, the Evans and Sutherlands lab was created at the U, which laid the foundation for graphics development and innovation in the United States. However, as this industry grew, much of it left Utah.
”We believe that we’re at a point where many of these industries will now stay here, particularly life sciences,” he said.
Randall said one of the reasons is that Utah graduates more students with STEM degrees per capita than any other state in the nation, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
While Utah is a smaller state by population, the presidents said small labs can make big differences when given the needed support.
“States that do it well usually focus down on four or five areas that they want to excel in,” Cantwell said.

Click to enlarge.