r&d

With U.S. private sector R&D activity declining and global competition intensifying in areas of U.S. expertise, it is clear the U.S. must take strategic action to maintain its position as the world leader in R&D and prevent innovation from leaving our shores. Last week, the Department of Energy announced 66 breakthrough energy-related projects would receive a total of $130 million through its OPEN 2012 program.

The Congressional Research Service recently published findings on the current conditions of federal support of academic research, highlighting the threat that constrained university, state and federal budgets places on critical basic research. Although there is growing recognition that R&D is crucial to the long term health of the nation's science and technology sectors, data from the report shows U.S. colleges and universities have seen a decline in financial support at the federal, state and private levels.

In an era of tightening fiscal constraints, states have to make tough decisions, establish clear economic development funding priorities and transform their economic development models to take advantage of immediate opportunities and position their state for long-term economic growth. Mississippi, Oklahoma and Washington have released state-specific strategic plans that make those tough decisions by focusing their resources on key science & technology (S&T) areas to address the economic impacts of the Great Recession and position the state for future prosperity.

Several federal agencies have joined forces to launch a new beta website that allows individuals to look at U.S. federal investments in science and engineering from two agencies — the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The R&D dashboard gives users the ability to search and download data on grants issued by the federal government to research institutions (investments) and on output activities (e.g., patents and publications) from federally funded research by state, congressional district and research institution.

New energy plans unveiled by governors in Connecticut and Mississippi promise to capitalize on current strengths, build capacity for future projects, and encourage public-private partnerships to scale up clean energy projects and create jobs by attracting more R&D investment to the states. Connecticut's draft strategy proposes economic incentives to drive down costs of new technology and maximize the use of clean energy finance banks — an approach that is heralded as a model for other states in a recent policy report.

Though innovation and entrepreneurship was notably absent from Wednesday's presidential debate on domestic policy, presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have acknowledged the importance of technological innovation in stimulating the economy and bolstering U.S. competitive capabilities in the global economy.

Unless Congress and the White House take action by the end of the year, across-the-board spending reductions will go into effect for all federal agencies as a result of provisions in the Budget Control Act of 2011. The budget sequestration would reduce defense discretionary funding by 9.4 percent and non-defense funding by 8.2 percent from the 2011 baseline.

Whether to attract federal grants, keep up with demand to graduate more highly skilled students, or advance the capabilities for research and exploration, universities are pushing for state funding to invest in science buildings and other infrastructure needed to expand research capacity and improve competitiveness. In New Jersey, a measure to approve $750 million in higher education borrowing to build and renovate campus facilities will go to the voters in November.

To reflect an evolving mission that expands the scope of genomics research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a major reorganization that will establish four new divisions to constitute the National Genome Research Institute's Extramural Research Program. The multi-divisional structure will help the institute pursue its enhanced mission for using genomics to advance medical science and improve human health, which has become a greater focus from its original mission to unravel the Human Genome, according to NIH.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with NASA, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded nearly $50 million to grantees for the development and use of robots that cooperatively work with people to enhance individual human capabilities, performance and safety.