Scientific Society Presidents Support University-Based Research
The potential impact on federal science funding from deficit-reduction efforts has prompted a number of groups and organizations to issue statements supporting government-funded science. A recent position paper of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) makes the case for government funding of university research. Roland Schmitt, chair of the AIP Governing Board, is a CSSP member, as are the presidents of the following AIP Member Societies: the Acoustical Society of America, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Crystallographic Association, the American Geophysical Union, The American Physical Society, and the Optical Society of America. The CSSP statement is quoted below:
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FEDERAL SUPPORT OF UNIVERSITY-BASED RESEARCH
CSSP POSITION: Increasing investment in the future of the nation through university-based research must remain an overriding national priority because it is one of the most productive roles of government.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD SUSTAIN ITS INVESTMENT IN UNIVERSITY-BASED RESEARCH.
-The scientific and technological leadership invested in now will determine the security and economic competitiveness of the nation in the 21st century. Without the research, education, and training provided by universities, the United States cannot develop the workforce needed to develop and lead in the highest growth industries of the future. Strong Federal support to sustain a robust, university-based research enterprise underpins the future welfare of the nation.
-Americans understand that scientific research is a proper function of the Federal Government. 75% or more of the American public agrees that "...scientific research that advances the frontiers of knowledge is necessary and should be supported by the government,” according to six separate polls conducted by the Public Opinion Laboratory in Chicago, Illinois from 1982 to 1994. This same sentiment is reinforced by recent petitions signed by the Conference of Mayors, by fifteen state governors, and one by the CEOs of 15 major U.S. corporations.
-For each dollar originally invested, federally supported fundamental scientific research repays the economy 20% to 50% annually in each succeeding year. This has been shown by more than a dozen independent studies.
-Almost half of the fundamental scientific research conducted in the nation is university-based. Historically, the research university enterprise has produced not only new wealth, but more importantly, new sources of wealth for the future. The good health, military superiority, and economic leadership we enjoy today are readily traceable to investments in university-based research made a generation or more ago.
-The Federal Government is investing some $13 billion in university-based research in 1995: the payoff is immense. Industrial sectors now heavily dependent on discoveries in science and on a well educated workforce include electronic components, plastics and new materials, computers and software, telecommunications equipment and services, pharmaceutical and medical equipment and supplies and aeronautics. These 21st-century enterprises create millions of jobs and contribute over $600 billion per year to the economy.
-Real growth in U.S. R&D in the period 1981-1993 was only 3/4 that of other G-7 nations, our primary competitors for world markets. Research investment in the United States has been virtually flat during the 1990s, just when it should have been growing to compete with the other G-7 nations. This bodes ill for the future U.S. balance of trade.
CSSP CONCLUSION: The federal investment in scientific research has provided enormous benefit to our national security, economy, and society for over half a century. The federal responsibility for this investment has been undisputed throughout this era. Today, this successful enterprise - which creates not only wealth but, uniquely, new sources of wealth - is threatened. The budget reconciliation proposes reducing this investment by one-third over seven years, and the Congressional Research Service has proposed even worse scenarios. Thus, an enterprise of unquestioned productivity and economic benefits is severely threatened.
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For additional information, contact Dr. Martin Apple, CSSP Executive Director, at 202-872-4452 or at cssp@acs.org
