Technology, United States Science Policy From the Ground Up

The United States’ system for federal support of scientific research and development emerged in the 1950s. Driven by the goal of building domestic STEM capability for meeting modern society’s needs, the nation quickly established itself as the dominant force in R&D globally. By the 1960s, US funding, which was largely dispensed by the federal government, accounted for an astonishing 69% of global R&D expenditures, and American scientists ranked among the most prominent in the world.

Seventy years later, the global landscape has changed, reducing the primacy of the US R&D enterprise. In response, policymakers and influential thought leaders, alarmed that the nation has fallen behind, seek to shore up US leadership in R&D by increasing funding to federal science agencies while expanding their mission areas, leaving their core operational models intact. This approach, however, fails to account for a key development that is shaping R&D in the twenty-first century.

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