Innovation Imperiled: Golden Eggs No More

N.B. This editorial appeared in the Des Moines Register on Monday, June 12, 2017. It was co-written with Kelvin Droegemeier, Vice President for Research and Regents' Professor of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma

We browse the web on our smartphones, shop online, are alerted to a problem with our car's engine by a computerized sensor, receive real time severe weather information down to the level of city streets, protect our homes and businesses using computerized alarm systems, and rely on advanced medical imaging to detect breast cancer in its earliest stages. All of these capabilities, and innumerable others that directly benefit our lives, have been made possible by scientific and engineering research conducted in our nation's research universities and national laboratories

In the last decades of the 20th century, the U.S. created a research and higher education system that not only is the envy of the world, but also is unparalleled in human history. That system has been, -- to use a line from a recent Washington Post editorial by MIT's Eric Lander and Google's Eric Schmidt -- a "miracle machine," that produced a bounty of research innovation that transformed our economy, our society, our health, and our world.

However, like Aesop's fable of the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs, we now risk killing the very thing that has given the U.S. an enormous national security and economic advantage at the very time that the rest of the world, having watched us with unbridled envy, is now thoughtfully and determinedly raising its own geese. China's investments are growing at a prodigious rate, followed by major investments by South Korea, Russia, India, and the European Union. Meanwhile, U.S. government investment in basic research is now at a forty-year low as a percentage of GDP, and the U.S. is losing ground to other nations – and losing ground rapidly.

This decline is especially worrisome given the clear and convincing evidence that basic research investments are critical to the growth of our economy, to developing drugs and medical treatments, to ensuring our national security, and improving our quality of life. Research also directly creates jobs and builds a workforce that keeps the U.S. in a leadership position in today's global society.

Federal investment in basic research has long enjoyed strong and deep support from both Republicans and Democrats. It is not a partisan issue; it is the embodiment of a quintessentially American desire, rooted deeply in our history as explorers and trailblazers – to explore the unknown, to ask the difficult questions, to protect our citizens, and to create a better future for our children and ourselves.

You do not have to take our word for it. In 2013, our BIG10 colleagues launched the UMETRICS project to quantify the direct impact of basic research on the economy. This project, which has since expanded to include public and private research universities across the U.S., showed that Federal investment in research stimulates the purchase of goods and services in counties, large and small, across the country, as well as employing tens of thousands of workers. The UMETRICS project, under the auspices of the University of Michigan's Institute for Research on Innovation and Science (IRIS), is now using U.S. Census data to quantify the creation of new companies based on research expenditures.

Science and technology have been responsible for more than half of all U.S. economic growth since World War II, an astounding return on a modest Federal investment in basic research. Unlike science fiction television shows, where complex problems can be solved before the next commercial break, translating research discoveries into innovations often takes years. The now indispensable smartphone and GPS are cases in point. Although both are "miracles" of engineering and design, they rely on breakthroughs in physics from decades ago. As a nation, we have always been patient to wait – for we have trusted that research ultimately will deliver. It always has, and it always will.

Like failing to exercise or follow a healthy diet, the consequences of failing to invest in research materialize only slowly, almost imperceptibly, which makes the challenge of ensuring robust investment even greater. The benefits of short-term savings in the yearly Federal budgets, wrought through cuts to research, frighteningly overshadow the insidious, long-term consequences. Hardworking researchers produce the "miracles" we now take for granted. Due to underfunding, we risk losing an entire generation of these researchers when we need them most, and rebounding from the loss of talent is neither immediate nor inexpensive.

We applaud Congress for recognizing the value of research investment in the final FY 2017 omnibus funding bill, and the bipartisan tone in the America COMPETES Act. To ensure U.S. competitiveness and quality of life for all, the White House and Congress must continue their long history of support for basic and applied research, starting with the FY 2018 budget.

Recent increases to the budget of the National Institutes for Health are extremely important, yet similar increases in physical science, engineering, and the social and behavioral sciences have not been forthcoming for other agencies. Disciplines no longer explore in isolation; funding one at the expense of another harms the entire research enterprise and slows solution of our most challenging problems.

Make no mistake; the research "miracle machine" that has made the U.S. the envy of the world is in grave danger. Balance, predictable and stable funding for research and development – across all relevant disciplines – is essential for the U.S. to remain not only a world leader in research, but also a translator of research outcomes into practical products and services that benefit to all of our citizens.

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