r&d

Academic, industrial and federal R&D spending is surveyed annually by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Similar information regarding state R&D investments, however, only is captured periodically. The latest survey results, for fiscal years 2006 and 2007 were released this past December and used to create an SSTI Useful Stats table on state R&D intensity (see the Dec. 9, 2009 Digest). Is this information useful for state and local TBED practitioners and policy makers?

Despite the depth of the economic recession, preliminary estimates by the National Science Foundation indicate that U.S. R&D expenditures totaled $397.6 billion in 2008, up from $372.5 billion in 2007. This increase in overall national R&D performance represented growth in 2008 of 6.7 percent over the 2007 level. It also substantially exceeded the pace of growth in U.S. gross domestic product over the same year, which was 3.3 percent.

Current trends presented in the 2010 edition of the National Science Board’s biennial Science & Engineering Indicators suggest as early as the 2012 edition, the U.S. will no longer leads the world for a key indicator: total R&D expenditures – unless corrective action is taken.

Enterprise Florida released its latest five-year strategic plan for the state, calling for increased investment in STEM education, university research, commercialization assistance and early-stage capital access programs. Florida must diversify its economy and strengthen its high-tech industries in order to reduce the state’s reliance on population-based growth, according to the report. Enterprise Florida also endorses a cluster-based strategy to promote high-tech industries based on their relative levels of development in the state.

Gov. Sonny Perdue last week outlined an $18.2 billion budget for FY11 that reduces spending across several state agencies, including a $9.6 million reduction for R&D activities through the Research Consortium. The governor’s budget also would eliminate two science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs within the Department of Education.

Describing the nation’s innovation system as broken, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke yesterday said the Department of Commerce will be “working hard to find solutions” that move more federally funded R&D into the commercial market.

“Even in areas where we are allocating enough funding for R&D, we’re not doing a good enough job getting these ideas into the marketplace, particularly through entrepreneurs.

There is no simple answer to a frequently asked question that SSTI receives: what should we expect to be a good return on public investment in research? A new working paper available from the National Bureau of Economic Research helps clarify the range of possible answers, though, and strongly suggests the investment is worthwhile.

To keep alive the underground deep science laboratory, a National Science Foundation (NSF) research priority for scientific discovery in geophysics, Gov. Mike Rounds is asking lawmakers to approve $5.4 million in special appropriations for bridge funding through May 2011. During his budget presentation to the legislature last week, Gov. Rounds told lawmakers the $35 million allocated toward the effort in 2004 and 2005 would run out this month and $250 million in anticipated NSF funding would not be available until 2011.

To help train future scientists and support cutting-edge research in health and environmental issues, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell is recommending $109.5 million in the FY11 capital budget for the University of Alaska Life Sciences Facility in Fairbanks. The multi-purpose teaching and research facility would house the Department of Biology and Wildlife and accommodate a wide-range of research programs, reports Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

In FY2007, the states in aggregate expended $1.23 billion in funds for research and development, according to recent data released by the National Science Foundation. This is the second year consecutive annual data from the NSF's State Agency Research and Development Expenditures series has been produced. SSTI has prepared a table that shows for both FY07 and FY06 each state's expenditures for R&D from the state government, the state's GDP, and the spending intensity as measured by R&D expenditures per million dollars of GDP.