AUGUST 30, 2002

SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING INDICATORS

The National Science Foundation released its biennial report on science and engineering trends, performance, and funding, “Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002.” This two-volume compilation of information contains, in the words of National Science Board Chairman Eamon Kelly, “quantitative analyses of key aspects of the scope, quality, and vitality of the Nation’s science and engineering enterprise,” and is intended “to provide a broad base of quantitative information for use by public and private policymakers.” The widely-used report contains analyses of “The United States in a Changing World,” U.S. elementary and secondary education, U.S. higher education, status of the U.S. science and engineering workforce, foreign-born scientists and engineers in the U.S. workforce, indicators of U.S. competitiveness, U.S. industrial R&D, expanding R&D activities around the world, and national and international research alliances. It shows that, when inflation is taken into account, total federal R&D spending and federal spending on applied research both are in decline. The data also show that industry’s share of R&D spending has grown significantly over the past four decades, while federal support represents a declining share of R&D expenditures (only 26.3 percent of total R&D expenditures in 2000 as compared to 65 percent in 1960). The report is available on the web at http://www.nsf.gov.sbe/srs/seind02

NSF also has published “Characteristics of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers in the United States: 1999” which presents data on the demographic and employment characteristics of the nation’s scientists and engineers gathered from a 1999 survey. The goal of the survey (SDR) is to provide policymakers and researchers with high-quality data and analyses for making informed decisions related to the educational achievement and career patterns of the nation’s doctoral scientists and engineers. The detailed statistical tables in the report provide information on the number and median salaries of scientists and engineers by field of degree and occupation; for demographic characteristics such as gender, race/ethnicity, and citizenship; and employment-related characteristics such as occupation, sector of employment, median annual salary, and various labor force rates. The report is available at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf02328

WHITE HOUSE ADVISORS WEIGH IN ON RESEARCH FUNDING

Early in September, in a move carefully timed to provide input at a critical phase in development of Administration advance plans for the fiscal year 2004 budget (the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2003), the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology sent a letter and report directly to President Bush advocating increases in federal investment in science and engineering research.

PCAST, which is co-chaired by Dr. John Marburger, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President, emphasized that if the current downward trend in federal support for research is not reversed, the nation’s science and engineering enterprise will soon become unsustainable. The Council cited a number of concerns:

“Federal R&D funding as compared to gross domestic product continues its decline,” with R&D support from the federal government falling to its lowest point as a percentage of GDP in over 25 years, now exceeded by a number of countries;
“Private sector R&D investments doe not sufficiently replace shrinking federal support;
“Inadequate federal funding for physical sciences and engineering hurts all scientific disciplines,” and while recent increases in biological and life sciences are commendable, they must now be balanced with increases in physical sciences and engineering;
“Declining federal support for science and engineering students jeopardizes economic growth;
“Complex management structure prevents a focused R&D vision” by the federal government, which PCAST emphasized to the President “is particularly important as your Administration and Congress work to provide support for homeland security through a wide variety of agencies. Coordination within a strategic view is needed.”

PCAST took note of proposals in Congress to double the R&D budgets of the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and other agencies, but recognized the politically charged nature of this concept, urging instead that “we must now redress R&D funding patterns to guarantee that our federal investments in science and technology ensure economic strength, national security, and prosperity and health for our citizens.”