R&D Investment

In the U.S., academic research is the source of most of the new ideas that drive innovation. Entire industries, including semiconductors, biotechnology, computers, and many materials areas, are based on research begun in universities.

The principal supporter of academic research is the federal government. Over the last 20 years, however, we have allowed academic research to languish. As a per cent of gross national product, federal support for academic research declined sharply from 1968 to 1974 and has not yet recovered to the 1968 level. Furthermore, most of the recent growth has occurred in the life sciences. Federal investment in the physical sciences and engineering, the fields that are most critical for competitive technologies, has stagnated. As a partial solution to this problem, NSF and the Administration have pressed for a doubling of the NSF budget by 1993. This would make a substantial difference and is essential to our technological and economic competitiveness.

We must also consider the balance between civilian and defense R&D. Today, in contrast to the past, the commercial sector is the precursor of leading-edge technologies, whereas defense research has become less critical to spawning commercial technology.

But this shift is not reflected in federal funding priorities. During the 1980s, the U.S. government sharply increased its investment in defense R&D as part of the arms buildup. Ten years ago, the federal R&D investment was evenly distributed between the defense and civilian sectors. Today the defense sector absorbs about 60 per cent. In 1987 it was as high as 67 or 68 per cent.

In addition to the federal R&D picture, we must consider the R&D investments made by industry, which has the prime responsibility for technology commercialization. Industry cannot succeed without strong R&D investments, and recently industry's investment in R&D has declined in real terms. It's a moot point whether the reason was the leveraged buyout and merger binge or shortsighted management action or something else. The important thing is to recognize the problem and begin to turn it around.

Industry must take advantage of university research, which in the U.S. is the wellspring of new concepts and ideas. NSF's science and technology centers, engineering research centers, and supercomputer centers are designed with this in mind, namely, multidisciplinary, relevant research with participation by the nonacademic sector.

But on a broader scale, the High Performance Computing Initiative developed under the direction of the Office of Science and Technology Policy requires not only the participation of all concerned agencies and industry but everybody's participation, especially that of the individuals and organizations here today.