Source: “Impacts of Federal R&D Investment,” Breakthrough Energy, September 2020.
Commentary: Federal spending on research and development has historically led to breakthrough innovations, from the Internet to GPS, while sustaining basic research that is key to later discoveries. Such spending has also spurred job creation, directly and indirectly supporting more than 1.6 million jobs in 2018, according to a recent report that PWC prepared for Breakthrough Energy. Federal investment in research also added nearly $200 billion to the U.S. economy, and generated $39 billion in federal and state tax income that year.
