Press Releases

Regarding James M. Gentile's editorial (“Keeping the U.S. a World Leader in Science.” July 13) readers would do well to examine my entire address to the AAAS Science Policy Forum (available at: www.ostp.gov) rather than Jeffrey Mervis's misleadingly incomplete account of it (Science Magazine, May 11, 2007). In my talk I expressed alarm that the nation's research capacity in some fields is outpacing trends in federal research support that have persisted over four decades. It is simply not the case that "the U.S. has begun to stumble as a world leader in science and technology" or that researchers have been "left high and dry by flat federal funding" -- we continue to outspend and outperform all other major economies in research, and R&D funding has grown by 56 percent (from $91 billion to $143 billion) since 2001. I certainly agree with Gentile that the capacity exists to do more, and that is the point. Yes, it will take much more than the resources of Research Corporation to match the extraordinary expansion of the biomedical research community as the NIH budget doubled prior to 2004. In contrast to the federal discretionary budget, whose limits are increasingly constrained by mandated programs, private sector investments in research and development tend to grow with the economy. They currently exceed federal R&D by a factor of two. Research universities and other institutions are already forming innovative partnerships with state and private sector entities to augment federal research funding, and this trend will certainly continue. This is a healthy trend, and I am pleased that Research Corporation will continue to support it with its modest resources.