<p>For those of you whom are aware of Scripps, you know this is extremely exciting news (if it happens).</p>
<p>The agency is the nation’s largest public underwriter of life-science research. It provided about 86 percent of Scripps Research’s revenues last year, according to Fitch Ratings. The institute’s current annual operating budget is $310 million, which covers its La Jolla headquarters and the campus in Jupiter, Fla.</p>
<p>The financial picture at USC is markedly different. The university started a $6 billion private fundraising campaign in 2011 and has already raised more than half of that sum. It’s possible that some of the money could be used to acquire Scripps Research, which would give USC one of the largest and most prestigious independent life-science institutes in the world.</p>
<p>Scripps Research is especially influential in chemistry, molecular biology and stem cell research. Its scientists have developed important therapies such as the rheumatoid arthritis medication Humira and the leukemia drug Leustatin.</p>
<p>The institute is home to three Nobel Prize winners and young stars such as Phil Baran, who last year won a MacArthur “Genius” grant. Another Nobel laureate with the institute, Gerald Edelman, recently died.</p>
<p>The Scripps Research Institute is not affiliated with UCSD. It is an independent scientific research institute. It existed before UCSD was founded.</p>
<p>The Scripps Institution of Oceanography is part of UCSD.</p>
<p>Modern Man,
On other sites where this news was posted there was much confusion regarding which Scripps entity was involved.<br>
Your post was very clear.
One of my Trojan brothers lives in La Jolla, so I am aware of the strong association Scripps has with the academic community in the greater San Diego area.</p>
<p>“This is like buying Cal Tech’s or MIT’s biochemistry department times 5 and just adding it to our already burgeoning science departments - cannot understate how big a move this is for USC in the sciences. Scripps looked like they were going to become one of the world’s top research institutes, but the poor funding has lost them major players like kc nicolaou who is on the short list for the Nobel prize in chemistry. Scripps needs the money and USC needs the high profile professors and labs. USC + Scripps would be incredible and a very good move for our graduate degrees. Game changer if it happens.”</p>
<p>I’m not confident this is in USC’s long term interests. USC is reportedly offering only $15 million a year for 40 years ($600 mil) and TSRI is valued at over $700 mil, with the $600 mil NPV of only $250 mil, a 2.2 percent interest rate. Thus, it’s not an attractive offer. The other problem is that their operating budget exceeds $300 mil and its overhead or indirect costs charged to the NIH approaches 100 percent, an obscene sum, which would need to be reigned in and require a cultural and philosophically charged shift. This doesn’t include the political and financial problems related to the Florida branch and faculty backlash. There is too much controversy and expense to absorb.</p>
<p>A better and more inexpensive option is to hire a handful of their best scientists who want to join the USC faculty. Stay clear of the drama.</p>
<p>Honestly, we should raid their three or four Nobels, and their staff, allow the Nobels to teach class or research remotely, travel to campus twice a month, and be done with the rest. It will cost far less than $15 mil per year, and our ranking in at least one dubious ranking, ARWU, which is based on # of Nobel faculty, will spike.</p>
<p>Agreed, but we are wise to invest in hiring such faculty when we can. And I’m happy we have a lot of faculty to keep our student faculty ratio low. Once we reduce our student body we’ll be better positioned to compete with HYSP by offering a more intimate collegiate experience…</p>
<p>It takes many years, sometimes decades to be recognized for your work-- this is a much more efficient and quick way to get Nobels. </p>
<p>IMHO:
As a UG parent, I couldn’t care less about how many Nobels are at USC. They typically have very little to do with UG education. And, if my D wanted a HYPS more intimate experience, she would have gone there in the first place. Absolutely no need for all UG institutions to be the same- choices are great.</p>
<p>Numbers vary from year to year when members are selected for prestigious national honors in academia. USC has many faculty members who are elected to national academies, foreign academies, hold Guggenheim Fellowships, Sloan Fellowships, Fulbright Fellowships, National Science Foundation Career Awards, National Institutes of Health, IEEE Fellows, Honda Award, Pritzer Prizes, National Medals, Pulitzer Prizes, Shannon Awards and many Academy Award, Emmy Award, Grammy Award and other recipients of honors or awards. </p>
An interesting turn of events. TSRI appoints USC Dornsife Dean Steve Kay as President. Although Kay is leaving USC, could this be a possible trial run to see how USC would run things?
"Kay, who was previously at Scripps from 1996 to 2007, chaired an exploratory committee for the Scripps Florida campus, which opened in 2009. He said that he hoped his experience with the institute would ease any tensions about his arrival from USC. Less than a year ago, Kay lured renowned structural biologist Raymond Stevens to USC from Scripps.
“The faculty, Pete and myself are looking to the future and we’re not going to be bogged down or dragged back to those controversies of the recent past,” Kay says.
Independence was a sticking point in faculty members’ dissatisfaction with the USC deal. Kay says that while he values the independence of the faculty, more alliances will probably be in the offing as he and Schultz try to position Scripps as a translational research powerhouse.
“I think it’s very important that Scripps maintains its identity and faculty culture,” Kay says. “That doesn’t exclude us from entering into alliances either at the domain level, at the level of individual therapeutic areas, or larger therapeutic alliances across our research organization.”"
“Trial run” doesn’t seem to be the right term for it, but it does sound like Kay will make an attempt to revisit some kind of relationship between Scripps and USC.
Bumping this up because we all know the Scripps deal tanked after the faculty revolted. IMO, USC should stay clear of Scripps, which is highly prestigious only in the eyes of its faculty, highly leveraged with little private support, and becoming more obsolete as NIH dollars are redirected to competing institutions like USC, which is better at managing federal dollars. Scripps’ days are numbered.
The surefire way to kill Scripps is what USC just did: open a bioscience institute in San Diego. I say let’s continue hiring the best minds in the field, continue to grow the institute and watch as former Scripps’ stars come with hat in hand looking for work.