United States Research Enterprise: Enhancements for the Future

No country in the history of the world has more readily, or more fruitfully, embraced innovation through science and technology than the United States. The products of our basic and applied scientific research not only provide us with high-quality jobs and support our high-tech and knowledge economies, but they also define us as a nation; as an inventive, entrepreneurial society. The benefits from scientific advances, and the need for such advances to continue, are evident in virtually every aspect of modern life. The United States is in the midst of a profound reorganisation of how research is done, where it is done, who does it, and how its results find their way to the marketplace. This confluence of circumstances threatens the Nation’s world-leading position in innovation and technology and the benefits it brings. This book examines the importance of what is at stake, and what has been the response to date of the U.S. science and technology enterprise, and discusses the kinds of actions that could create positive opportunities for the United States in the future.