Science policy of the United States

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The US is losing leadership of most critical technology to China, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.[3]

Nathan Rosenberg, one of the pioneers of technological innovation research, pointed out that industrial research laboratories, if not the most important institutional innovations in institutional innovation in the 20th century, are also one of the most important institutional innovations. Although not the first invention of the United States, this system has a wider spread and stronger influence in the US economy than in other countries.

The United States devoted 2.8% of GDP to research and development (R&D) in 2012. The private sector contributed two-thirds of the total. The Obama administration had fixed a target of a 3% ratio by the end of his presidency in 2016.^[4]

In the

The number of Congressional members and other politicians with backgrounds in science, engineering, and technology has grown in recent years, with the 116th Congress setting a record with 47 of 535 members with STEM backgrounds.[6] Therefore, most U.S. politicians refer to various Congressional support agencies for analysis on science related issues, which do not solely focus on science, but provide insight for Congress to make decisions dealing with scientific issues. These agencies are nonpartisan and provide objective reports on topics requested by members of congress. They are the Congressional Research Service, Government Accountability Office, and Congressional Budget Office.^[6] In the past, the Office of Technology Assessment provided Congressional members and committees with objective analysis of scientific and technical issues, but this office was abolished as a result of the Republican Revolution of 1994.^[7]

Further advice is provided by extragovernmental organizations such as

The Obama administration's federal budget proposal for fiscal year 2015:[10][11]

Air Force: $23.74B   Navy: $16.301B   Army: $6.598B   Other Defense: $18.225B   NIH: $29.54B   Other HHS: $1.529B   Energy: $12.309B   NASA: $11.555B   NSF: $5.727B   Agriculture: $2.447B   Commerce (NIST & NOAA): $1.597B   Veterans Affairs: $1.178B   Interior: $0.925B   Homeland Security: $0.876B   Transportation: $0.865B   EPA: $0.56B   PCORI: $0.528B   Education: $0.336B   Smithsonian: $0.252B   Other: $0.698B

Only a small percentage of the overall federal budget is allocated to R&D. The FY2015 budget request includes $135.110B in R&D spending^[10] out of a total budget of $3969.069B, representing 3.4% of the budget.^[12] Research and development funding in the federal budget is not centrally enacted, but is spread across many appropriations bills which are enacted in the annual United States budget process. Of the twelve annual appropriations bills, the most important for R&D are those for Defense; Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (which includes NIH); Commerce, Justice, and Science (which includes NSF, NASA, NIST, and NOAA); and Energy and Water Development. Other appropriations bills include smaller amounts of R&D funding.

There are a number of federal agencies across the government which carry out science policy. Some of these primarily perform their own research "in-house", while others grant funds to external organizations or individual researchers. In addition, the

The FY2015 presidential budget request defines R&D as "the collection of efforts directed toward gaining greater knowledge or understanding and applying knowledge toward the production of useful materials, devices, and methods." R&D is divided into five subcategories. Basic research is directed toward understanding of the fundamental aspects of observable phenomena. It may be directed towards broad but not specific applications. Applied research is directed towards gaining knowledge to meet a recognized and specific need. Development is the application of knowledge or understanding for the production of useful materials, devices, and methods, including production of prototypes. R&D equipment includes acquisition or production of movable equipment, such as spectrometers, research satellites, or detectors. R&D facilities include the construction or major repairs to physical facilities including land, buildings, and fixed capital equipment such fixed facilities as reactors, wind tunnels, and particle accelerators.^[13]

The following chart shows a breakdown for the five agencies with the largest R&D budgets in the Obama administration's FY2015 proposal:^[13]

Defense R&D has the goal of "maintaining strategic technological advantages over potential foreign adversaries."

The following information is based on a 2022 Congressional Research Service report. Approximately 97% ($119.3 billion) of DoD’s RDT&E funding for FY 2022 ($122.9 billion) is appropriated in Title IV (Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation), which includes appropriations for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force (under the Air Force account), a Defense-wide RDT&E account, and the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation. The Defense-wide account includes the MDA, DARPA, OSD and 17 other DOD organizations.^[19] Below is a breakdown for FY 2022 DoD RDT&E by funding code:

6.1 Basic Research 2.3%; 6.2 Applied Research 5.8%; 6.3 Advanced Technology Development 7.7%; 6.4 Advanced Component Development and Prototypes 27.5%; 6.5 System Development and Demonstration 12.6%; 6.6 RDT&E Management Support 7.0%; 6.7 Operational System Development 36.4%; and 6.8 Software and Digital Technology Pilot Project 0.6%.^[20]

In 2010, Congress passed the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-358; 15 U.S.C. §3719). The law provides the federal agencies with the broad authority to carry out prize competitions “to stimulate innovation that has the potential to advance the mission of the respective agency.” 15 U.S.C. §3718(c)(4). The term “federal agency” does "not include any agency of the legislative branch of the Federal Government." 15 U.S.C. §3719(a)(3).

In 2017, Congress passed the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act of 2017 (P.L. 114-329). Among the amendments to the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, it authorized federal agencies to use "Federal appropriated funds and funds provided by private sector for-profit and nonprofit entities" as well as from state and local governments." 15 U.S.C. §3719(m)(1). ^[21] P.L. 114-329 also provided federal agencies with the “explicit authority to use crowdsourcing and citizen science … to advance federal science agency missions and stimulate and facilitate broader public participation in the innovation process”^[22]

Challenge.gov contains a listing of active federal challenge and prize competitions. The website was launched in 2010 and is managed by the U.S. General Services Administration.^[23]

 This article incorporates public domain material from Federal Prize Competitions. Congressional Research Service.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2010)

Inventions "conceived or actually

The Federal Research Public Access Act (111th congress S.1373, introduced 25 June 2009 but still in a Senate committee) would require "free online public access to such final peer-reviewed manuscripts or published versions as soon as practicable, but not later than 6 months after publication in peer-reviewed journals".^[28][29][30] The bill was later succeeded by the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act, which was introduced twice before it was introduced again in 115th Congress.^[31]

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011 moved the United States from a 'first to invent' system to a 'first to file' model, the most significant patent reform since 1952. This act will limit or eliminate lengthy legal and bureaucratic challenges that used to accompany contested filings. However, the pressure to file early may limit the inventor's ability to exploit the period of exclusivity fully. It may also disadvantage very small entities, for which the legal costs of preparing an application are the main barrier to filing. This legislation has also fostered the rise of what are familiarly known as patent trolls.^[4]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2010)

Most of the leading political issues in the United States have a scientific component. For example, healthcare, renewable energy, climate change, and national security. Amongst U.S. public opinion, 60% of Americans believe scientific experts should play an active role in policy debates over relevant issues, although this view is divided amongst Democrats and Republicans.^[32] Broadly, a majority of Americans believe that scientists should be involved in shaping policies related to medical and health, energy, education, environmental, infrastructure, defense, and agriculture policies.^[33]

There are also a number of state and local agencies which deal with state-specific science policy and provide additional funding, such as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

The level of research spending varies considerably from one state to another. Six states (New Mexico, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, California and Michigan) each devoted 3.9% or more of their GDP to R&D in 2010, together contributing 42% of national research expenditure. In 2010, more than one-quarter of R&D was concentrated in California (28.1%), ahead of Massachusetts (5.7%), New Jersey (5.6%), Washington State (5.5%), Michigan (5.4%), Texas (5.2%), Illinois (4.8%), New York (3.6%) and Pennsylvania (3.5%). Seven states (Arkansas, Nevada, Oklahoma, Louisiana, South Dakota and Wyoming) devoted less than 0.8% of GDP to R&D.^[4]

California is home to Silicon Valley, the name given to the area hosting the leading corporations and start-ups in information technology. This state also hosts dynamic biotechnology clusters in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego. The main biotechnology clusters outside California are the cities of Boston/Cambridge, Massachusetts, Maryland, suburban Washington DC, New York, Seattle, Philadelphia and Chicago. California supplies 13.7% of all jobs in science and engineering across the country, more than any other state. Some 5.7% of Californians are employed in these fields. This high share reflects a potent combination of academic excellence and a strong business focus on R&D: the prestigious Stanford University and University of California rub shoulders with Silicon Valley, for instance. In much the same way, Route 128 around Boston in the State of Massachusetts is not only home to numerous high-tech firms and corporations but also hosts the renowned Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[4]

New Mexico's high research intensity can be explained by the fact that it hosts both Los Alamos National Laboratory and the primary campus of Sandia National Laboratories, the two major United States Department of Energy research and development national laboratories. Maryland's position may reflect the concentration of federally funded research institutions there. Washington State has a high concentration of high-tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing and the engineering functions of most automobile manufacturers are located in the State of Michigan.^[4]

Microsoft, Intel and Google figured among the world's top 10 corporations for research spending in 2014. They shared this distinction with Johnson & Johnson, a multinational based in New Jersey which makes pharmaceutical and healthcare products, as well as medical devices, and were closely followed by automobile giant General Motors (11th), based in Detroit, and pharmaceutical companies Merck (12th) and Pfizer (15th). Merck is headquartered in New Jersey and Pfizer in New York. Intel's investment in R&D has more than doubled in the past 10 years, whereas Pfizer's investment has dropped since 2012. Several pharmaceutical companies figure among the top 15 corporations for research spending. The US carries out almost half (46%) of all research in the life sciences, making it the world leader. In 2013, US pharmaceutical companies spent US$40 billion on R&D inside the US and nearly another US$11 billion on R&D abroad. Some 7% of the companies on Thomson Reuters' Top 100 Global Innovators list for 2014 are active in biomedical research, equal to the number of businesses in consumer products and telecommunications.^[4]

The first President's Science and Technology Advisor was

The creation of the National Science Foundation, although implemented in 1950, was a controversial issue that started as early as 1942, between engineer and science administrator Vannevar Bush and Senator Harley M. Kilgore (D-WV), who was interested in the organization of military research. Senator Kilgore presented a series of bills between 1942–1945 to Congress, the one that most resembles the establishment of the NSF, by name, was in 1944, outlining an independent agency whose main focus was to promote peacetime basic and applied research as well as scientific training and education. Some specifics outlined were that the director would be appointed and the board would be composed of scientists, technical experts and members of the public. The government would take ownership of intellectual property developed with federal funding and funding would be distributed based on geographical location, not merit. Although both Bush and Kilgore were in favor of government support of science, they disagreed philosophically on the details of how that support would be carried out. In particular, Bush sided with the board being composed of just scientists with no public insight. When Congress signed the legislation that created the NSF, many of Bush's ideals were removed. It illustrates that these questions about patent rights, social science expectations, the distribution of federal funding (geographical or merit), and who (scientists or policymakers) get to be the administrators are interesting questions that science policy grapples with.

• List of United States research and development agencies
• Science and technology in the United States
• Biomedical research in the United States
• Technological and industrial history of the United States
• Science policy
• NASA Budget
• STAR METRICS
• List of Books about the Politics of Science

 This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0. Text taken from UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030​, UNESCO.