Allocating Federal Funds for Science and Technology (1995) / Chapter Skim
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4 Interactions Between Federal and Industrial Funding and the Relationship Between Basic and Applied Research
4 Interactions Between Federal and Industrial Funding and the Relationship Between Basic and Applied Research
Pages 70-81
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From page 70... ...
Past revolutionary advances in biology -- unraveling the double helical structure of DNA in 1953, discovering recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s -- and today's exploding molecular genetics and integrative biology have just begun to illuminate the immense complexity of life. These fundamentally important discoveries also are linked to the capability to design new drugs and diagnostic technologies in medicine, new approaches to problems in agriculture, and technologies for environmental improvement.
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From page 71... ...
Private pharmaceutical firms made investments comparable in magnitude to federal funding, but focused on narrowing the search for specific agents and clinical testing to prove their worth. Drugs lower blood pressure by reducing fluid retention (diuretics)
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From page 72... ...
Enzyme Angiotensin Converting Action Angiotensin Types Enzyme Inhibitors of Renin Snake Venom Blocks Renin Formation (ACE Inhibitors) Discovered Captopril (SQUIBB)
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From page 73... ...
The federal government has supported basic biological research, epidemiology, behavioral and social science, and clinical research for decades. Private firms have developed new drugs to reduce blood pressure once it is detected.
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From page 74... ...
The impediments to chip design diminished; graduate students felt free to experiment and innovate; even radical designs for chips became practical. The foundries and other components of ARPA's VLSI program had spectacular results: a renaissance in computer design, universities creating VLSI programs, the beginnings of three-dimensional graphics, and initial efforts in reduced instruction set computing (RISC)
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From page 75... ...
These include computer graphics; networks; use of icons, buttons, and other "user-friendly" methods now commonly known as "windows"; reduced instruction set computing (RISC) , which simplifies and speeds computer operations; and very large scale integrated (VLSI)
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From page 76... ...
Practical applications are often impossible to predict from any one scientific discovery that is nonetheless crucial to the ultimate outcome, and the best path to the desired use must adjust continually to surprising sources of new knowledge. Norman Ramsey's Nobel Prize-winning work in physics was seminal in the development of atomic clocks that enabled the global positioning system (see Box II.2)
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From page 77... ...
Basic materials science bears on electronics, instrumentation, aeronautics, and many domains of manufacturing. Gregor Mendel was studying how to improve crops when he discovered the basic laws of genetics, and characterizing DNA's double helical structure in 1953 led 2 decades later to practical applications through recombinant DNA technology, with impacts not only on biomedical research but also on pharmaceutical manufacturing, agriculture, and environmental remediation.
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From page 78... ...
A distinction between "basic" and "applied" generally is not useful as the decisive criterion that defines a proper federal role, except when the application area is an existing commercial market where industrial applied research usually will predominate. Federal leadership is indeed essential for basic research, because industry does not support it except in a limited way and under unusual circumstances such as near-monopoly positions that are now rapidly disappearing.8 Five decades of history make clear that the federal government is positioned uniquely to support the training of people and the development of new technologies that are not specific to a particular product or service.
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From page 79... ...
troops headed abroad, or defining the exact length of a meter or a second with the greatest precision available at the time. Federal funding for science and technology development also helps educate and train not only those scientists and engineers who continue on to perform research and development in both the public and private sectors, but also those whose work involves making technically informed management decisions about corporate strategy and finance.
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From page 80... ...
Pharmaceutical firms have concluded that survival depends on increasing the pace of innovation, introducing more products in less time, and data show that strong connections to basic research performed outside the firm, as well as strong R&D capacity within it, predict success in discovering new drugs.12 Pharmaceutical executives report that their products depend more on federally funded science than any other industrial sector, and patent statistics bear this out.13 Thus even in a sector where private firms' R&D investments are high, and encompass some basic research, the federal role remains vital. In the 1970s and 1980s attention turned to the dramatic technological advances made in Japan.
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From page 81... ...
Government Support for Scientific and Technical Public Goods Is Central to Creating National Economic Advantage Federal funding -- for basic research, applied research relevant to government missions, development of technology, and education and training in universities -- encourages new firms to enter high-technology areas. Applied academic research funded by the federal government has helped produce many small high-technology firms.
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