ITHACA, N.Y.--As federal government support for research declines, major universities must expand their research partnerships with American industry, Frank H.T. Rhodes, president of Cornell, said last Friday.

Closer ties between major research universities and corporate America will ensure "the revitalization of our nation's economy and the preservation of our national security and way of life," Rhodes said in a state of the university address, the Cornell Daily Sun reported.

The idea of cooperation between industry and research universities "existed long before the federal government became the principal supporter of academic research in the years following World War Two," he said, adding that university research is one of the "basic foundations" of the country's economic recovery program.