Three local college presidents made a pitch Wednesday for why their campus should be the next University of Texas at Austin or Texas A&M University.

The heads of the University of North Texas, UT-Arlington and UT-Dallas each told state lawmakers that their campus has the potential to become Texas' next major public research university – but it will take more money and other help from the state.

"All of us today are talking about building a stronger Texas and focusing on the resources we have and the resources we need," UTA President Jim Spaniolo told Senate subcommittees on higher education and higher education finance.

Lawmakers heard from the heads of seven public campuses aspiring to become nationally recognized as top research universities. The other four were Texas Tech, the University of Houston, UT-El Paso and UT-San Antonio.

Texas legislators are studying the state's need for more top research universities, and discussing where to put them and how to pay for them. There's no single definition of top research university. Some say the threshold is spending at least $100 million a year on research, some look at top rankings from U.S. News & World Report, while others see it as membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities.

But in general, top research campuses attract millions of federal research dollars, brilliant professors and students – and lots of prestige. They also help attract new businesses to the communities where they're located.

Besides UT-Austin and Texas A&M, the state's other nationally recognized research university is Rice, which is private. California, by contrast, has nine major research campuses. New York has seven.

UTD President David Daniel estimated that the state would need to spend about $70 million more a year to elevate one more university to top research status.

Several of the presidents said the state could help by matching dollars that colleges raise for research, new professor positions, graduate fellowships and more.

"We're all in this together," UNT President Gretchen Bataille said. "We need educated people in this state, and it's up to all of us to contribute to that."