What you do is so expensive that we can’t do it by ourselves anymore. What we do best in America is come up with new formulas, new structures, new understandings, new approaches to complex problems. And we need to bring that creativity to the task of finding ways to pay for the fundamental research that will keep us where we need to be as a nation, as an economy, and as a set of academies – namely, on the very cutting edge.
Here are some graphic representations of some statistics. This is industry R&D expenditures, NSF expenditures, and NIH expenditures over the last 20 years. I was pretty shocked when I saw this graph. I knew the numbers, but I had not seen the graphic representation of them. The industry R&D numbers are so big that the scale compresses and therefore hides the very unpleasant fact with which we are all intimately familiar– the last three years of flat funding in the NIH. This is probably the most dismal and depressing component of this story.
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91% of the R&D dollars spent by industry are spent in the development of their own products. In terms of basic research, 6% of all of the R&D expenditures in the United States are being spent on the fundamental research that drives the discoveries. NSF has had a dismal record over the past 20 years in terms of growth. NIH showed promise, but the encouragement has evaporated in the last four or five years. Industry is spending a lot of money, but they are not spending it on basic research.
Where does this leave us? You know very well where it leaves us - it leaves us scrambling. As I look around the room I see an inordinate number of gray or bald heads. It leaves us with a really serious problem for our junior researchers in this country. The average age of the first time PI of an R01 is 35 or 36 years old. That is not very encouraging. It is difficult to get people of genuine talent to understand how it is that they can invest themselves in a promotion and tenure process that places a very high value on an R01 that probably will not come to fruition until after that fundamental decision in their academic career has been made.
We are confronting a set of circumstances here that is so complex, it is beyond the ability of any one segment of factors of industry, of the academy, and of the states to address. In order for these complex issues to be resolved, we are going to have to work together in ways that will require creativity and collaboration. We in the academy must explain to a whole variety of audiences why the fundamental research at this institution, or any like it, is essential to the future well-being of the entire country. In other words, we cannot go back to that time when we could say, “Trust me, give me my grant”. For the rest of our working lives those days are gone, if they ever existed.
Similarly, industry can no longer say that the university or the government should take care of fundamental research, because it is education’s responsibility. Government does play an important role, but there is not enough money available from governmental agencies to support the kind of broad-based enterprises that have given this country its greatest advantages. We are going to have to work with federal agencies, with state agencies, and with industry to make a case for the kind of fundamental research which does not have immediate practical and commercial application, but will have eventual practical application once we understand what we have discovered. This means that industry R&D can no longer be so focused on development of existing intellectual property, but has to invest in the creation of new discoveries. We once had that sort of industry investment in information technology, engineering and pharmacy. There were huge investments in these areas by industry but essentially those days are gone.
Last year, for the first time in 10 years, R&D investment in this country did not keep up with inflation. That has happened only six times in the last 50 years of this country. In five to ten years we are going to have a very serious problem. All of you in this room are here because you have figured out this system and figured out ways to keep body and soul and bench operating. It is the future we need to worry about. It is the next generation, it is the people who are not yet in this room whom we have to worry about.
So I’m going to stop here to tell you that if I am optimistic at all it is because of the incredible creativity of people like you. Because of the investment of your talents in solving not just the problems you work on, on the bench, but also in the political arena as well. I am delighted that you are here. It is an honor for the University to have you amongst us and I want to thank you personally for what you do.
Thank you.
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