Here are a few examples of the widening Innovation Deficit:
David Norton Vice President for Research
O
ver the past year, university leaders from around the country, including UF President Bernie Machen, have been arguing that federal budget cuts to research and higher education are creating an “innovation deficit” at a time when other nations are steadily increasing investments in those areas. Last year, President Machen and 162 other university leaders sent an open letter to President Obama and Congress arguing that closing this widening gap between needed and actual investments in research and education must be a national imperative. The higher education leaders noted that investments in those areas lead to the types of innovation and new technologies that power the nation’s economy, create jobs and reduce the budget deficit while ensuring the U.S. maintains its role as global leader. And last month leaders of the business, higher education, scientific, and high-tech manufacturing communities launched a new initiative called “Close the Innovation Deficit” because they are concerned about cuts and stagnating federal investments in research and higher education.
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Spring 2014
▸ Over the last 10 years, research and development spending as a share of economic output has remained nearly constant in the United States, but has increased by nearly 50 percent in South Korea and nearly 90 percent in China. ▸ From 1996 to 2007, R&D expenditures in the U.S. grew by an average of 5.8 percent annually. During the same time period, China’s average annual growth was 21.9 percent ▸ Between 2000 and 2008, the number of engineering doctorates awarded in China more than tripled to 15,000. This compared to a total of 8,100 in the United States, of which only about 3,200 went to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. ▸ The United States spent up to 17 percent of discretionary spending on R&D during the 1960s, in part due to the space program, which resulted in a great deal of spinoff innovation; in recent years, outlays have fallen to around 9 percent of the federal discretionary budget. ▸ The United States has historically been the single largest R&D performing country, but in 2009, countries in Asia matched our total expenditure of $400 billion. ▸ China’s recent purchase of 128 cuttingedge genome sequencers has given it the world’s largest next-generation sequencing capacity — with more sequencing capacity than the entire United States, and about one-third of total global capacity.
Emerging economic powers like China and South Korea have dramatically increased their investments in research and higher education in recognition of the enormous benefits such investments have had for the U.S. economy. But despite this success, U.S. investment in research and technology continues to decline, most notably as a result of the “sequestration” legislation that took effect in March 2013. A survey last October of nearly 300 higher education institutions nationwide found that the mandatory cuts to discretionary spending (from which research budgets are funded) have taken a heavy toll. About 70 percent of the respondents reported a reduction in the number of new federal research grants and delays in already-funded projects. UF held its own in fiscal year 2013, finishing within 1 percent of the previous year with $640.6 million in research awards, but funding from National Institutes of Health, our largest sponsor, was down 7 percent and only a 30-percent increase in industry funding kept us level. Unfortunately, the spending bill approved by Congress and signed by the president in January and the proposed fiscal year 2015 budget released in March do little to close the innovation deficit. Under the budget proposal, spending on research and development at civilian science agencies would increase by just 0.7 percent, to $65.9 billion. Funding for the NIH does not even reach pre-sequestration levels and continues the decline of support for NIH since 2003. If the United States is to remain a leader in a 21st century world fueled by technological advances, we must continue to invest in our universities. I encourage you to learn more about the Innovation Deficit by visiting http://www.innovationdeficit.org/