The Plan was inspired in part by Kerr's pragmatic realization that not all institutions of higher education can or should become research universities. As Kerr explained in his memoirs: "The state did not need a higher education system where every component was intent on being another Harvard or Berkeley or Stanford." Therefore, the Plan was intended to concentrate state resources at the top, rather than spreading them too thin among far too many would-be research universities. In contrast, Texas promoted too many colleges to university status during the 20th century, with the result that by 2009, only three of the state's universities had achieved the prestigious R1 classification assigned by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education to the most advanced American research universities. It was only in 2009 that Texas belatedly enacted House Bill 51 to specifically promote the development of nationally competitive research universities by creating the National Research University Fund and the Texas Research Incentive Program. By 2019, six more Texas universities had reached the R1 classification.