Allocating Federal Funds for Science and Technology (1995) / Chapter Skim
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1 The Evolution and Impact of Federal Government Support for R&D in Broad Outline
1 The Evolution and Impact of Federal Government Support for R&D in Broad Outline
Pages 41-50
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From page 41... ...
The Contemporary Federal R&D Portfolio Resulted from Five Decades of Response to National Crises and Opportunities Prior to World War II, most of the federal funds for R&D supported missionoriented research in agriculture, national defense, and natural resources carried out by government employees in small government laboratories and experimental stations. Such R&D as was supported by the Army and Navy was done in military arsenals.
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From page 42... ...
A sense of mutual obligation emerged in which the R&D institutions could reasonably expect continued funding in return for producing quality efforts and results from government-financed programs. • Federal R&D support was consolidated in the immediate postwar period.
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From page 43... ...
The energy agencies of the federal government were reorganized twice during the decade. In 1975, the Atomic Energy Commission was divided into the Energy Research and Development Administration and a new regulatory agency, the U.S.
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From page 44... ...
More recently, as the contractor-operated federal laboratories were authorized by the National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act of 1989 to enter into CRADAs, the De partment of Energy, which owns most of these laboratories, has set aside funds in its defense programs and energy research budgets to fund, on a competitive basis, laboratory R&D that contributes to specific CRADAs. The Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982 required all federal agencies that spend a significant amount on R&D to set aside a small proportion of those funds to support R&D projects of interest to them at small businesses on a competitive basis.
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From page 45... ...
Since the mid-1980s, the continuing struggle to control federal budget deficits has put increasing pressure on federal R&D funding. R&D programs have had to compete for money more directly with other federal activities and have also been affected by the various mechanisms adopted to enforce budget deficit reduction, including the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (commonly known as the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act)
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From page 46... ...
In 1984, the National Cooperative Research Act amended the antitrust statutes to facilitate cooperative R&D among competing firms. • With increasing frequency, the federal government has cost-shared with firms and consortia to underwrite precompetitive technology development projects in such areas as manufacturing technology or technology with a strong potential for application in both defense and commercial arenas (so-called dual-use technology)
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From page 47... ...
Nongovernmental recipients of public R&D funds must comply with additional rules and regulations regarding the procurement process, financial accountability, nondiscrimination and affirmative action, preferences for small and minority-owned businesses, "Buy American" requirements, maintaining a drug-free workplace, and so on. Results of 50 Years of Federal R&D Support Investment in R&D has become an essential element of contemporary governance.
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From page 48... ...
Stable and thoughtful research investments can contribute to controlling federal costs. Continuing technological superiority enables the United States to maintain a reduced but highly effective military force without compromising national security; new nondestructive testing techniques reduce the costs of maintaining highways; and information technologies help federal agencies, such as the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, control the costs of serving very large populations.
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From page 49... ...
While the military's primary interest in what was to become GPS was to improve the delivery of tactical weapons and to reverse the proliferation of costly new navigation systems, its civilian potential was seen at the outset; that is, early in its development GPS was recognized as a potential dual-use technology, and in fact the commercial GPS market now overshadows military demand.1 Several military programs involved in what was to become GPS coalesced in 1972, when the Air Force was given responsibility for developing a navigation system for all military ser vices as well as civilian users. Concurrently, technologies essential to GPS, including satellites and microelectronics, also were being developed.
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From page 50... ...
The current federal R&D budgeting process evolved to accommodate new missions, and the performing institutions grew to meet the challenge of growing federal expectations and increased appropriations. Flexibility was achieved mainly by building new structures, not by devising means to change old ones.
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