May 23, 2006
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Federal Computer Week (05/01/06) Vol. 20, No. 13, P. 18; Hardy, Michael
America's maintenance of its global innovation leadership depends greatly on what roles industry and government play in research and development. Kei Koizumi of the American Association for the Advancement of Science reports that federal R&D budgets are on a general decline, while the Office of Personnel Management finds that the number of federally employed scientists has experienced a slight drop in recent years. Institute for Defense and Homeland Security executive director Hugh Montgomery says the government is taking less of a lead role in applied research, and cites the diversion of funding from federal research organizations to the Defense Department for President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative and the peace dividend fueled by Soviet Russia's implosion as critical factors in the reduction of applied research spending. Meanwhile, James Decker with the Department of Energy's Office of Science points to a fall-off of basic research investment among industrial labs. National Security Personnel System program executive director Mary Lacey says the government-industry relationship has become less of a one-way street as a result of a shift in the driving forces underlying innovation. Whereas the government used to permit industry to commercialize many federally-developed technologies, nowadays companies often develop commercial technologies that the government can adopt. The difficulty proponents of higher government R&D investment encounter in convincing cost-conscious lawmakers to allocate more funding is significantly attributable to a lack of quantifiable data on how important federal spending is to innovation, according to Koizumi. George Washington University professor Nicholas Vonortas notes that the nonprofit nature of government organizations makes it difficult to gauge the impact of R&D.
For the complete article, see http://www.fcw.com/article94208-05-01-06-Print
Posted by rab5 at 09:58 PM
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