ITIF Offers Strategy To Reignite American Competitiveness Through COMPETES Act Reauthorization
U.S. innovation policy, which in the latter half of the twentieth century became focused on massive federal investment in basic research, is no longer tenable, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). In the post-World War II era, the federal government funded a wide variety of costly basic research projects at U.S. universities and federal laboratories without a guiding economic strategy for these investments.
U.S. Sources Funded More Than 80% of Worldwide Industrial R&D in 2011
U.S. companies performed over $294 billion in research and development (R&D) in 2011, according to the Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS) – a business survey conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Science Foundation. Companies funded an overwhelming majority of the industrial R&D conducted in the U.S. (81.2 percent, approximately $238.8 billion). Approximately $55.3 million of industrial R&D (18.8 percent) was funded by other sources, predominately from the federal government ($31.3 billion). U.S.