WASHINGTON, D.C. — URA hosted its Council of Presidents Annual Meeting and Policy Forum at Convene Conference Center in downtown Washington, D.C. on January 29, 2025.
Universities Research Association (URA) hosted its Council of Presidents (COP) Annual Meeting & Policy Forum on January 29, 2025, reporting on URA’s business activities and programs, and providing a forum for advancing research and education programs across national laboratories and URA’s academic consortium. This year’s Policy Forum focused on the importance of the collaborations between the U.S. and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), facilitated by the U.S. Department of Energy and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), and supported by Congressional investments, critical for sustaining the future of the particle physics field globally. COP Chair, Dr. Kimberly Espy, President of Wayne State University, presided over the event attended by Presidents, Vice Presidents for Research, and other academic leaders in research from URA’s U.S. and international member universities.
The forum opened with a presentation by Dr. Fabiola Giannotti, Director-General, CERN. Dr. Giannotti gave an engaging presentation on CERN’s history, research, and examples of how its technologies impact society. In addition, Dr. Giannotti illustrated CERN’s balanced portfolio of four pillars -research, technology and innovation, collaboration, and STEM education and training- to broaden engagement across global communities and workforce development, to advance the fundamental understanding of physics. She ended with a personal note of her journey where she started as an international researcher and expressed hope and optimism for the future of high energy physics.
Dr. Jonathan Bagger, Chief Executive Officer, American Physical Society, gave an informative presentation on AIP’s strategic priorities, and effective practices for physics programs (https://ep3guide.org/), and called to action the need for empowering the significance of research for public trust Science Trust Project.
Dr. Young-Kee Kim, Interim Director, Fermilab, shared her career trajectory as a physicist at the Laboratory. She drew parallels between the goals of Fermilab and CERN with respect to serving as a research institute for users from over 150 countries. Her engaging presentation personalized the importance of the next generation of large-scale experiments.
The Honorable Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL), U.S. House of Representatives, a fellow Ph.D. physicist in Congress, emphasized the significance of generating a mobile and agile scientific workforce. He assured the participants of the importance of academia and research and encouraged them to hold on to their programs as further directions are received from the government, accepted, or challenged. Finally, he shared his confidence in Dr. Kim to help rebuild the team spirit in this time of transition for Fermilab.
The Forum concluded with three presentations related to URA activities. First, Dr. Timothy Sands, Chair of the URA Board of Trustees and President of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, provided an update on URA Governance. Next, John Mester, URA President & CEO, shared URA’s programs portfolio designed to support URA’s member universities, the Users and High Energy Physics community, Fermilab’s science mission, and the overall dynamic national S&T ecosystem. Lastly, URA Sandia Site Office Director, David Schultz, described URA’s impactful activities at Sandia National Laboratories. Collectively, these culminating reports highlighted URA’s consistent support in advancing the mission and goals of Fermilab & Sandia National Laboratories. URA continues to integrate research, science policy, STEM workforce development, to augment the management and operation of our national laboratories.
URA’s convening of leaders in research communities across academia, national laboratories, the executive branch, and Congress underscores the critical role of a diverse consortium of stakeholders in shaping the future of the national science and research enterprise. By providing this forum for open dialogue, collaboration, and knowledge exchange, URA is playing a role in ensuring that current government policies and the needs of our member universities are heard and that the pursuit of scientific discovery continues to flourish.