Capitalizing on New Needs and New Opportunities Government-Industry Partnerships in Biotechnology and Information Technologies (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Panel II: A Historical Perspective: Federal Partnerships in Computing and Biotechnology
Panel II: A Historical Perspective: Federal Partnerships in Computing and Biotechnology
Pages 98-128
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From page 98... ...
The panel today is very distinguished, consisting of Kenneth Flamm of the University of Texas, who has written extensively on the computing and semiconductor industries; Leon Rosenberg of Princeton University, a distinguished pediatrician who has also served as director of research at Bristol-Myers and as Dean of Yale Medical School; and William Bonvillian, legislative director for Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut) and one of the most respected senior staffers on Capitol Hill.
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From page 99... ...
Flamm touched on a few topics from the computer industry's history. Unlike the semiconductor industry, nearly all computer development in the immediate postwar era enjoyed significant federal support.
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From page 100... ...
Their role has not just been in providing R&D funds, but also in serving as a market for high-end computing machines. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has played a small role in computer development, but an important one in certain niches, such as computer simulation, image processing, and large-scale system software development.
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From page 101... ...
There may be some optimal amount of money the government should spend on such research, and as the industry grows and the commercial market expands, it should not be surprising or alarming that the overall federal share declines. In other words, the pie may be expanding so greatly that the federal slice will naturally shrink.
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From page 102... ...
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES Software & Service Industry ~ University FFRDC Math & Computer Science · University Math & Computer Science · Hardware Industry 75 80 84 90 95 97 Year IBM returned to the hardware category. In sum, the generally flat spending on hardware R&D by industry indicates that the declining federal share in R&D spending in OCAM cannot be explained by growing overall expenditures for computer hardware R&D.
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From page 103... ...
Flamm then turned to a discussion of the distribution of R&D among firms in the computer hardware industry. With respect to hardware sales among the top 20 R&D performing hardware firms, Dr.
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From page 104... ...
Finally, Figure 6 demonstrates that in 1984, federal R&D funds for computer hardware firms were a significant source of funding for the top it&D-performing firms in particular. Federal R&D dollars were never a large source of funds for firms outside the top tier, but by 1997, federal R&D dollars for all segments of the computer hardware industry had ceased to be a meaningful amount.
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From page 105... ...
1 Em 1984 1~1 1 990 1~ 1 1997 next 4 next 12 rest of industry Hardware Firms (by size of R&D effort) FIGURE 5 Total R&D as a percentage of industry sales.
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From page 106... ...
When the total amount of R&D spending is added across the same categorizations of hardware and software firms, the same pattern emerges (Figure 8~. Finally, when examining R&D as a percentage of sales, Figure 9 shows that software companies are more R&D intensive by this measure than hardware firms, and the distribution of R&D intensity for software firms is more even than that for hardware companies.
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From page 107... ...
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 7000 6000 tn —O 5000cot a)
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From page 108... ...
108 25.0 20.0 15.0tL 10.0 5.0 0.0 BIOTECHNOLOGYAND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES Hardware Software top 4 next 4 next 12 rest of industry Firms (by size and R&D effort) FIGURE 9 Total R&D as a percentage of sales, 1997.
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From page 109... ...
One possible explanation for the decline in R&D in the computer hardware industry is that R&Dis migrating from the computer industry into the semiconductor industry. Figure 12 offers support for this notion.
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From page 110... ...
Additionally, government and industry have grown to understand that each party should fund different aspects of information technology R&D. However, there is little consensus at this point over the proper level of funding, the proper division between hardware and software, program structures, and overall objectives.
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From page 111... ...
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 100 80 60 c' 40 20 O111 Semiconductors [1 Hardware, Co Funds 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 Year FIGURE 13 Distribution of hardware and semiconductor R&D. 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 PARTNERSHIPS IN THE BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY Leon Rosenberg Princeton University Dr.
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From page 112... ...
· Biotechnology Industry: This industry is composed of nearly 1,300 private companies that use various biotechnologies to develop products for use in health care, food and agriculture, industrial processes, and environmental cleanup. The subset of companies engaging in health research makes up an important part of the medical research enterprise of this country.
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From page 113... ...
Rosenberg noted that little had been mentioned today about the role of advocacy in support of federal funding for R&D in the computer and semiconductor industries, but that he believes it has been crucial to the development of the big-pharmaceutical industries. Effective lobbying from the Association of American Medical Colleges, Research America, Funded-First, disease groups, and others, have been responsible for the growth in support for federally funded medical R&D over the past 30 years, and the past 10 years especially.
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From page 114... ...
From the perspective of universities, grants are the most preferable type of collaborative arrangement, because they allow for the maximum amount of academic autonomy in the conduct of R&D and use of its results. For academic scientists, grants are more desirable, but contracts and agreements play a significant role in academic science a total of $1.5 billion worth of contracts and agreements were entered into between the big-pharmaceutical industry and universities in 1999.
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From page 115... ...
Penhoet that continued advances in biotechnology depend on advances in information technology. Examples are numerous, from the human genome, to computational neurobiology, on-line databases, gene profiling, and patient records.
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From page 116... ...
TRENDS IN FEDERAL RESEARCH William Bonvillian Office of Senator Joseph Lieberman Mr. Bonvillian began by drawing an analogy of federal funding for science and technology.
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From page 117... ...
Work published by the STEP Board has found that 15 science research fields are declining, while 1 1 are rising.2 The fault line for winners and losers is life sciences versus physical sciences, with the life sciences, as already noted, doing much better. Defense R&D cuts play a central role in these trends, simply because the Defense R&D budget is so large; in real terms, DoD's R&D budget is down by about 30 percent over the past six years.
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From page 118... ...
In biotechnology and computing, future advances are likely to be based on inherently multidisciplinary R&D, so there will be major societal consequences if this research is not funded adequately and in proper proportion. Challenges for Policymakers A crucial question for policymakers is how to determine which R&D efforts must be funded to ensure future progress, in other words, "to separate the crown jewels from the paste" in funding certain parts of the overall federal research portfolio.
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From page 119... ...
The innovation process has been changing, and Mr. Bonvillian mentioned a recent article by Don Kash and Robert Rycroft arguing that innovation in complex technologies is now done by a network of innovators, not the sole researcher.
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From page 120... ...
Physical scientists must learn from their counterparts in the life sciences how to build political support for R&D funding. An "alert system" must be developed to warn policymakers when funding levels for some scientific disciplines drop below critical levels.
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From page 121... ...
This operational dilemma I'm talking about is not unique to space or the shuttle program. All you need to do is take a look at today's air traffic control system or large petrochemical facilities or heavy manufacturing, look into the operations and see the price we're paying for presentday hard, deterministic computation.
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From page 122... ...
A robot on a distant planetary surface shouldn't walk off a cliff simply because someone in mission control on Earth pre-sent a code to move it forward 10 paces. Now this is not fiction, because we just had a robot out in the desert to simulate an operation on Mars.
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From page 123... ...
In our space program, this has resulted in robotic operations that require direct human oversight, whether it is a rover on a planetary surface or an astronaut controlling the shuttle's robotic arm to move objects in and out of the payload bay. It requires many months of expensive simulation and training to plan and conduct these space operations.
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From page 124... ...
Biologically inspired computing tools will also enable us to develop intelligent robotic systems. Before we send humans to explore beyond our planet, we will first send robotic colonies to set up livable systems.
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From page 125... ...
When we are ready to send humans deep into space, astronaut health and safety will be our top priority. Biologically inspired technologies will enable a human-machine partnership that is advanced enough to ensure the well-being of astronauts, perhaps on a 2- to 4-year trip to Mars.
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From page 126... ...
Biologically inspired technologies also have incredible potential beyond health-care applications. Eye-like devices of the future would not just work in the visual.
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From page 127... ...
However, the ultimate power of biology will be to design the molecules that contain the coding, or blueprint, for complex space systems that is, spacecraft DNA that will initially build critical parts, and ultimately, the entire spacecraft. We will simulate the entire process to be sure we have it right, but once we "plant the seed," spacecraft genetics will take over in our factory of the future.
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From page 128... ...
128 BIOTECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES This metamorphosis of single living entities or local ecosystems is taken for granted it happens in nature every day, every minute, every second, everywhere. To some, it is science fiction to think of spacecraft in this way.
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