Nation's Position as Innovation Leader at Stake, Say Industry and Academia

The U.S. cannot take its position as a world leader of innovation and research for granted, suggest new initiatives sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation. A report released on April 21 by NSF states the U.S. must take action, pointing out that invention requires both ingenuity and a skilled workforce. The task force - a group of 14 organizations associated with business and academia - unveiled its own advocacy campaign a day earlier, calling upon the federal government to grow the budgets of several key research agencies.

Targeted for policymakers and the public, the task force's initiative is aimed at reversing a decline in federal investment in basic research in the physical sciences and engineering. The decline, the task force says, puts at risk the development of new technologies, new industries and high-value jobs.

Basic research in areas such as chemistry, physics, nanotechnology, genomics and semiconductor manufacturing has brought about some of the most significant innovations of the last 20 years, the task force argues. The group points to the development of the World Wide Web, magnetic resonance imaging and fiber optics as evidence of the importance of basic research. The semiconductor industry alone has led to 226,000 jobs, the group notes, and basic research performed at America's universities has resulted in 4,000 spin-off companies hiring 1.1 million employees.

Despite their importance and economic impact, however, funding for such efforts has remained flat in constant dollars or decreased by 37 percent as a share of gross domestic product, the task force says. This has created "a serious risk that the American discovery stream will be reduced to a trickle with a negative impact on innovation in the U.S." Decreases in basic research funding in the President's recent budget request reflect the trend, as in past Administrations, the group adds.

In response, the task force launched an advocacy campaign that includes paid advertising and outreach to policymakers. The group is calling on the federal government to increase funding by 10 percent to 12 percent per year over the next 5-7 years for NSF, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and the Department of Defense Research Accounts. The initiative will partly rely on testimony from U.S. companies and academics with experience in basic research.

The NSF report, INVENTION: Enhancing Inventiveness for Quality of LIfe, Competitiveness, and Sustainability, is the culmination of a year-long study by 56 leading scholars and practitioners. Over a series of five workshops, the group reviewed some of the pillars of invention and sought to better understand the role of inventive ingenuity in solving global problems. The resulting report asserts that the government, business and education sectors must actively foster inventiveness to safeguard the nation’s innovative edge in an increasingly competitive global market. Recommendations include:

• Leverage existing knowledge on how the inventive mind works in favor of a more inventive society.
• Strengthen those aspects of the education process that enhance creativity and technological inventiveness.
• Increase engineering and social science research and undertake public outreach activities in the invention process and the teaching of inventiveness.
• Initiate and expand initiatives to involve young people directly in the invention process. And,
• Review patent law and the patenting process on a continuing basis and make changes as necessary.

An executive summary of NSF's report and other backgrounders, including summary reports on each of the five workshops, are available at: http://web.mit.edu/invent/report.html