Assessing the Impacts of Changes in the Information Technology R&D Ecosystem Retaining Leadership in an Increasingly Global Environment (2009) / Chapter Skim
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5 Findings and Recommendations
5 Findings and Recommendations
Pages 149-166
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From page 149... ...
The RAND report concludes that the United States continues to perform "at or near the top in many measures of S&T leadership, [but that] this leadership must not be taken for granted" and recommends that institutions and incentives integral to the creation and performance of S&T discoveries be sustained and, when necessary, adapted to the changing global economy.
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. The importance of federal investment in scientific research was underscored emphatically in a recent report of the National Academies, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, which was followed by the administration's American Competitiveness Initiative and passage of the America COMPETES Act of 2007. A strong case has also been made over the years for investment in IT in particular.
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Their National Research Council, Evolving the High Performance Computing and Communications Initiative to Support the Nation's Information Infrastructure, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1995, p.
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, Information Technology Research: Investing in Our Future, Report to the President, February 24, 1999, "Executive Summary," available at http://www.nitrd.gov/pitac/report/exec_summary.html, accessed June 27, 2007; see also from the same report: Section V, "Creating an Effective Management Structure for Federal IT R&D," available at http://www.nitrd.gov/pitac/report/section_5.html; accessed June 27, 2007. As noted in Chapter 4, this pattern mirrors a broader underinvestment in the physical sciences and engineering highlighted in two recent National Academies studies: National Academy of Engineering, Engineering Research and America's Future: Meeting the Challenges of a Global Economy, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2005; and National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2007.
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As the federal government increases its investment in long-term basic research in the physical sciences, engineering, mathematics, and information sciences, it should care fully assess the level of investment in IT R&D, mindful of the economic return, societal impact, enablement of discovery across science and engineering, and other benefits of additional effort in IT, and should ensure that appropriate advisory mechanisms are in place to guide investment within the IT R&D portfolio. The committee's analysis of the opportunities in the expanding IT economy, the global competition faced by the United States, and the critical foundation that the federal investment in IT R&D provides for a broad range of economically and socially important IT applications convinced it that the nation's research base is inadequate and that additional investment is needed.
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For example, molecular biology is critical to advances in health care, biotechnology, agricul ture, and industrial processes.12 Building on the 1993 study, the 2005 National Academy of Engineering study Engineering Research and America's Future: Meeting the Challenges of a Global Economy included the following recommendation: The committee strongly recommends that the federal R&D portfolio be rebalanced by increasing funding for research in engineering and physi cal science to levels sufficient to support the nation's most urgent pri orities, such as national defense, homeland security, health care, energy security, and economic competitiveness. Allocations of federal funds should be determined by a strategic analysis to identify areas of research in engineering and science that support these priorities.
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was enacted to "provide for a coordinated Federal program to ensure continued United States leadership in high-performance computing," reflecting information technology's vital role in the economy, national security, and science. Among its provisions is the establishment of a highperformance computing advisory committee to provide an independent assessment of the program, including "whether the research and development undertaken pursuant to the program is helping to maintain the United States leadership in computing technology." That advisory committee was first convened in 1997 and named the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee.
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. In its report The New Educational Imperative: Improving High School Computer Science Education, the Computer Science Teachers Association correctly assesses the situation as one in which knowledge of computer science is as essential as knowledge of any of the traditional sci 15National Center for Women and Information Technology data, as derived from the Col lege Board, 2006 College Bound Seniors: Total Group Profile Report, 2006, available at http:// www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/news_info/cbsenior/yr2006/nationalreport.pdf; accessed July 2, 2007.
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umbrella as the federal agencies begin to implement the America COMPETES Act of 2007: 19Computer Science Teachers Association, The New Educational Imperative: Improving High School Computer Science Education, available at http://csta.acm.org/; accessed August 27, 2007. For an early assessment of fluency issues, see National Research Council, Being Fluent with Information Technology, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1999.
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can and will be sent offshore. Methodologies for such studies are complex and inconsistent -- they use different data sets, differ 21With respect to implementation processes, a useful resource might be the comprehensive look at science education standards found in National Research Council, National Science Education Standards, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1996.
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See AnnaLee Saxenian, The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2006. 24National Science Foundation (NSF)
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engineering and technology companies started between 1995 and 2005, mostly in software and innovation/manufacturing-related services ("electronics, computer and hardware design and service companies in addition to engineering services, research and testing") ,25 at least one of the key founders was born outside the United States (see Chapter 1)
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19. 27According to Bessen and Meurer, the number of patent lawsuits filed annually in the United States doubled during the 1990s, from almost 800 in 1990 to almost 1,600 in 1999; their research also "suggests that patent litigation can affect innovation incentives." James Bessen and Michael Meurer, "The Patent Litigation Explosion," paper presented at the American Law and Economics Association Annual Meeting, 2005, p.
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As a result, it is harder for new, small firms to grow into new major industry players by tapping public equity markets. Recommendation 3.1.
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information technology userS and INNOVATORS to lead the world IT innovation no longer happens only in university or corporate laboratories. Customer-created value is increasingly prominent: IT consumers are leveraging research, innovating, and creating value by combining networking hardware, software, and devices into novel solutions and businesses (see Chapter 3)
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A number of groups have cited the availability of broadband as an important goal. For example, in January 2002, TechNet, a group of Silicon Valley chief executive officers, proposed that the President and policy makers "make broadband a national priority and set a goal of making an affordable 100-megabits per second broadband connection available to 100 million American homes and small businesses by 2010."30 More recently, in January 2008, the California Broadband Task Force (CBTF)
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Federal and state regulators should explore models and approaches that reduce regulatory and jurisdictional bottlenecks and should increase incen tives for investment in these services. Setting -- and reaching -- a highly ambitious target such as the one proposed by TechNet would enable the United States to leap well ahead and hold that lead.32 However, this committee has chosen to follow the lead of the Committee on Broadband Last Mile Technology, which in its 2002 NRC report Broadband: Bringing Home the Bits, deliberately chose not to establish specific bandwidth targets for policy makers (see in Chapter 3 the subsection entitled "Broadband Speeds and Capabilities")
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The global IT R&D landscape now is quite different from what it was in 1995. To thrive in this new environment, the United States should play to its strengths, notably its continued leadership in conceptualizing the idea-intensive new concepts, products, and services that the rest of the world desires.
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