Doubling Down on R&D in Science and Engineering: Biden Administration’s Recipe for Innovation
The 2024 State of US Engineering Report and Key Provisions from the proposed FY 2025 President Proposed Budget
Last week, MetroLab Network attended the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy event “US Investments in R&D” in Washington DC. This event was hosted to announce the publication of the “State of US Science and Engineering (S&E) 2024” report. The report “provides information on the state of the U.S. science and engineering (S&E) enterprise over time and within a global context.” Speakers at the event also highlighted the key elements of President Biden’s FY 2025 budget, focusing on specific issues related to the Administration’s Research and Development (R&D) priorities.
NSB’s State of US Science and Engineering Report 2024
The National Science Board releases the State of US S&E report for the President and Congress on a biennial basis with the objective to highlight critical S&E trends related to three sections: talent, discovery and translation. It helps in assessing the global competitiveness and capacity for scientific discovery of the United States.
This year’s report has revealed the emergence of a set of new trends in education, STEM Workforce, Research and Development (R&D), global science and technology landscape and geographical variations in innovation capabilities within the US. Few of the key takeaways are:
- Low mathematics scores in secondary and elementary schools after COVID-19 pandemic: It has been assessed that between 2019 and 2022, the difference between the highest and lowest math scores has been the biggest in comparison to the last 20 years.
- STEM workforce is 1/4th of the entire US workforce but still there is still insufficient supply for the existing demand: In 2021, 36.8 million people were involved in STEM related occupations but more than half of them did not have bachelors or higher degrees.
- Private sector is conducting more R&D than we think: 36% of basic research (close to 40% share of federally funded research) is led by the business sector. This has impacted the total R&D funded by the federal government as it has dropped by 11% within 10 years (2011 to 2021).
While this report reaffirms the positioning of the US as a global leader in R&D, it highlights the increasing competition it faces from countries like China that has emerged as a top producer of S&E publications and international patents.
Prioritizing R&D for Nation’s Future
Incidentally, less than a year ago (17 August, 2023), acknowledging and anticipating the burgeoning R&D demands and related needs, the Biden Administration had shared a list of R&D priorities.. The R&D priorities listed the achievement of ‘bold, barely feasible goals’ as a critical objective, and the priorities included funding R&D efforts on issues including:
- Trustworthy AI Development:
- To mitigate AI risks to safety, privacy and security, truth, trust and democracy, civil rights and economic opportunity for all, fund R&D to guide designing of regulatory regimes and building tools, methods, community engagement strategies.
- Design, pilot and guide on how AI application can improve government functions and public services
- Focus on developing advanced and powerful AI systems that can cater to nation’s aspirations
2. National Security and Critical Technologies:
- Advance critical and emerging technology areas such as quantum science, biotechnology, high performance computing
- Mitigate national security risks associated with biosafety, nuclear weapons, biosecurity and address impact of AI and autonomous systems
- Mitigate cybersecurity risks via resilient architectures particularly for critical infrastructure, security by design
- Make the government and industry agile and provide capacity to support rapid transition of national security capabilities from demonstration to deployment
- Leverage R&D in digital engineering, robotics, advanced manufacturing
- Conduct technological competitiveness assessment and harness S&T (science and technology)intelligence to benchmark US progress
3. Climate Crisis and Environmental Stability:
- Achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
- Improve climate observation, monitoring, modeling before 6th National Climate Assessment; address future risks and opportunities; use indigenous knowledge
- Improve analysis of ecosystem services, tracking natural assets, implementing nature-based solutions roadmap
- Enhance resilience by developing actionable climate services consistent with federal framework and action plan
4. Health Outcomes and Equity:
- Mitigate existing and emerging health threats such as antimicrobial resistance, infectious disease outbreaks
- Cancer prevention, detection, care delivery support to end cancer by supporting Cancer Moonshot initiative
- Focus on mental health of at-risk communities (veterans, youth, medical professionals, LGBTQIA+)
- Improve clinical trials, advance cures for rare diseases and other high-need areas
- Reduce exposure to harmful chemicals, mitigate health effects for historically disadvantaged communities
4. Reducing Inequities and Expanding Participation:
- Generate evidence on different approaches through newly designed evaluations and experiments to achieve national goals more equitably and effectively
- Support STEM-focused regional innovation and workforce development; expand community engagement and participation in regulatory and civic processes
5. Fostering Economic Competitiveness and Innovation:
- Facilitate adoption of new technologies through applied research, pre-commercialization, experimental development, standards related efforts
- Enhance resilience through invigorating traditional industries and pushing for regional innovation
6. Strengthening Research Infrastructure and Enterprise:
- Support basic and applied research and assist new research institutions in competing for federal funding
- Identify and address research security challenges by supporting industrial/academic sectors
- Facilitate free, equitable and prompt access to federally funded research results while incentivizing and rewarding open, reproducible, secure research
- Support exploration of new approaches to minimize administrative burdens, engage new R&D performers, methods and partners.
FY 2025 Presidential Budget: Focus on Investment in Innovation, Talent and Infrastructure
The White House noted an era of intense innovation has begun in the US. Many companies are extensively investing in the promise of emerging science and tech developments.
For the Biden Administration, research and development is clearly the engine that propels boundless possibilities for America. While the Obama Administration pursued an ambitious goal of spending 3% of the GDP on R&D efforts, and today, it is 3.5% of the GDP.
A few things about President Biden’s 2025 budget that we want to highlight:
- The budget has a total allocation of $202 billion to fund R&D efforts across multiple agencies.
- Specifically, this includes $900 million to the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) to “focus on building partnerships across R&D sectors to translate basic R&D to products and processes that can benefit the American people.” This represents a 36% increase for TIP from 2024.
- A reiteration of a Biden Administration priority: growing domestic talent and continuing efforts to attract international talent with an emphasis on engineering programs
At the release event, Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar recognized President Biden’s sentiment on innovation. The President uses one word to describe America: possibilities. Indeed, the President sees science and R&D as a force in creating American possibilities. This embodies the spirit of our mission, and we urge Congress to solidify these important investments that have great potential to create a positive impact in our communities.
