Commentary: Should public opinion inform federal R&D priorities?

The federal government’s priorities for funding research and development do not necessarily match those of the general public, an analysis of ScienceCounts and National Science Foundation data suggests. ScienceCounts is a national nonprofit with the objective of enhancing the public's awareness of, and support for, federally-funded scientific research. Last year, alongside Research America, the organization released the results from their first study. In an analysis of education, ideology, gender, and age, the study looks at public opinions on whether a variety of scientific issues should be an urgent focus of research.  Overall, a comparison of these findings with the actual federal funding levels of R&D finds a disconnect between the general public and the federal government’s priorities.

The interactive chart below looks at the relative ranking of seven scientific categories (defense, health, space, energy, environment, commerce, and education) based on their public support and federal R&D funding. Overall, there appears to be a negative relationship between public support for categories and their level of federal funding. With health serving as the exception, four of the five categories most supported by the public receive the least amount of funding for R&D from the federal government. On the other hand, R&D related to defense and space have relatively little public support but are two of the three largest recipients of federal R&D dollars.

Ultimately, the question is not just whether public opinion should inform federal R&D priorities, but how it should inform these views. This is not to say that the federal government’s R&D priorities need to exactly mirror those of the public. However, it speaks to the wide disparities between how the government generously funds certain sectors (e.g., space and defense), while research in other sectors that have strong public support (e.g., education and environment) receive less funding. For policymakers and their constituencies, identifying ways to help bridge the divides between public and financial support may be critical to the ongoing support of the federal research enterprise.