It has been my experience that that best teachers are also among the best researchers at VT and elsewhere. There are exceptions, but talented faculty usually take great pride in their mission, whether research, teaching or extension. Those exceptional faculty with large research programs also offer great research/learning opportunities to undergrads. As a land Grant University, VT must address 3 missions - teaching, research, and extension. Appointments are typically joint between teaching-research or extension-research. The type of research that normally contributes to higher rankings of research universities is basic research, which attempts to improve our understanding of a particular phenomenon, study or law of nature. Basic research is designed to learn how processes or concepts work and often creates a foundation for applied studies. The federal government funds these from grants made from agencies such as National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD). Applied (or translational) research is designed to discover practical solutions to problems. Such research is often not valued as highly as basic research in the rankings of research universities, but land grant universities perform much of this research through their colleges of agriculture, natural resources, engineering, urban affairs, transportation, etc.. Such research is a bulwark of faculty who have extension-research appointments, as their research must directly inform their clientele's (e.g., farmers, foresters, land managers, health and nutrition specialists, civil and environmental engineering firms, local government, and the citizens of the Commonwealth) practical questions. However, many well-designed applied/translational research includes components of basic research so that the graduate students who conduct these studies develop a foundation for both basic and applied discovery. Federal agencies, such as DOE, DOD, Department of Agriculture (USDA), Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Department of Transportation, Department of Commerce, etc. may be large funders of applied-translational research. Land Grant University research ratings can be hamstrung by their need to perform applied research, but many of the highest ranked research universities are land grants nonetheless, e.g., MIT, Texas A&M, Michigan State U, Univ of California-Davis, Purdue, Univ of Wisconsin. I have often been asked why universities so value research at the expense of teaching. The answer is complex, but realize that textbooks and other teaching resources can only be written and updated from contemporary research. An end to research will result in an end to new teaching knowledge. Because basic research often provides the foundation for applied/translational research to solve practical problems, the federal government must fund such research because private companies typically are interested in applied research from which they can profit. Most of the great advances made by private sector research have their basis in prior government-funded research. The continued reliance on both is necessary for a prospering economy and quality of life. ** Edited by Gadfly at 4/14/2024, 8:40:27 AM