Science and R&D

The United States risks a serious brain drain as NIH funding cuts, canceled grants, and program rollbacks push early-career scientists abroad, threatening America’s long-term biomedical capacity, innovation leadership, and national competitiveness unless policymakers act to stabilize and strengthen research support.

The science community must move beyond the linear model of scientific research developed and encouraged by Vannevar Bush, and realign scientific exploration with national interests, especially in the face of the growing technological and economic threat posed by China.

From 1970 to the present, agricultural research conducted by a public research foundation in Brazil has increased Brazilian agricultural productivity by 110 percent.

Economists’ reliance on R&D and patent metrics distorts our understanding of productivity growth. Time to correct the conclusion: Here’s why these proxies fail to capture the forces that do drive it.

Research and development (R&D) is central to a firm’s competitiveness, both domestically and internationally. Data from the National Science Foundation shows that U.S.-based firms have increased foreign R&D investment flows over the last decade.

U.S. R&D is becoming increasingly concentrated in a handful of states just as China accelerates its lead in advanced industries. Federal and state policymakers must expand R&D tax incentives and targeted academic research funding to reverse this trend, spur nationwide innovation, and bolster U.S. competitiveness.

The United States is investing less in R&D for industrial production than its OECD peers. Congress should increase investment in this area to better compete with China.

Since the Bayh-Dole Act was passed 50 percent of FDA-approved drugs today rely on (at least some) applied research originating in universities.

Between 2022 and 2023, R&D investment in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations grew by 2.4 percent, a slowdown from the 3.6 percent growth the previous year.

The government-funded research initiatives that sustain our intellectual infrastructure—the body of scientific knowledge that underpins success in all other domains—must continue and receive more support than they have previously.