PCAST Calls for More Balance in Federal R&D Investments

At its August 28th meeting, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) approved sending a letter to President Bush urging him to "improve funding levels for physical sciences and certain areas of engineering" as the Administration prepares the FY 2004 federal budget request. The letter also encourages the federal government to establish a graduate fellowship program to attract more students into critical fields of science and engineering.

Considerable debate has been held regarding the past two federal budgets as appropriations for R&D in the life sciences, particularly within the National Institutes of Health, have grown faster than funding levels for the other sciences.

For the first time, the PCAST position expresses concern for an R&D imbalance at the highest levels of the Administration; John Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, is a co-chair for PCAST.

In the letter, PCAST raises concern for how federal R&D funding, while fundamentally responsible for 40 percent of the nation's patent activity, has declined as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product to its lowest level in more than 25 years. Private R&D does not adequately replace the federal investment, PCAST notes.

"Inadequate" federal investments in physical sciences and engineering "hurts all scientific disciplines," PCAST writes, and "jeopardizes economic growth."

The draft letter and accompanying report are available at: http://www.ostp.gov/PCAST/pcast.html