Federal Support for University Research: Forty Years After the National Defense Education Act (Conference: October 1, 1998)

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Conference Will Look at Past and Future Federal Support for University Based Research

On October 1, 1998, the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) and the establishment of NASA. Entitled "Federal Support for University Research: Forty Years after the National Defense Education Act and the Establishment of NASA," the event will provide a forum for discussing the past, present, and future of federal and private support for basic research in America’s research universities necessary to retain the nation’s market advantage in science and technology.

The morning session will be historical in orientation and will include:

• Marian C. Diamond (Integrative Biology, former Director Lawrence Hall of Science)
• A. Hunter Dupree (Brown University, historian of science and technology)
• Roger Geiger, (Penn State, author Research and Relevant Knowledge: American Research Universities Since World War II)
• Judson King (UC Provost and Senior Vice President)
• Karl Pister (Engineering, former Chancellor UC Santa Cruz)
• Robert Rosenzweig (Political Science, U.S. Office of Education 1958-62, former President Association of American Universities)
• Charles Townes (Physics, Nobel Laureate)

The afternoon session will focus on what the nation’s R&D investment portfolio should be in the next ten years and will include:

• Jack Gibbons (former science advisory to President Clinton)
• MRC Greenwood (President, American Association for the Advancement of the Sciences, Chancellor UC Santa Cruz)
• Daniel Koshland (Molecular and Cell Biology, former editor Science)
• Edward Penhoet (former President Chiron, Dean School of Public Health - UC Berkeley)
• Eugene Skolnikoff (MIT, author The Elusive Transformation and the Evolution of International Politics)

October 1st, 1998,marks the 40th anniversary of NASA’s establishment. Less than one month earlier, on September 2, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA). These two milestones in the history of the nation were the immediate and most profound consequence of the Soviet Union’s successful launch of Sputnik in late 1957. American had seemingly fallen behind not only in the space race, but the Cold War itself. The NDEA and NASA provided the gateway for other major federal legislation focused on expanding the science and technological prowess of the nation. It prompted a huge expansion in America’s training of scientists and engineers, providing a much needed catalyst for large scale federal funding for basic research in America’s research universities, and leading to a fundamental shift in the nation’s level and pattern of R&D investment.

For example, adjusting for inflation, total R&D funding grew by 200 percent between 1955 and 1965 - the largest single period of increase in this century. Outlays for research grew from 5 percent to 15 percent of the federal budget. Before 1958, approximately 1.5 percent of the nation’s GDP went to R&D, with half from the private sector and half from government. By the mid-1960s, the investment had climbed to 3.2 percent of GDP; some 70 percent of the nation’s entire research effort now came from federal coffers. The post-Sputnik shifts in federal policy created the foundation for many of today’s technological innovations, and for the emergence of whole new sectors of the economy.

Yet overall American investment in R&D over the past several years is stagnant and may decline. R&D investment is now at about 2.3 percent of GDP. Basic research funding has also been stagnant. There have been a number of proposal to increase federal appropriations for basic research, but thus far budget wars in Washington have stymied any significant shift in federal policy. What level of R&D investment, and more specifically in university based research, is necessary to make the next big leap in scientific knowledge and technology? What will America’s R&D investment portfolio look like in the year 2010 if it is to maintain its market edge in the production of new knowledge? The historical legacy of the post-Sputnik era and the nation’s future R&D prowess in the global economy is the subject of this one-day event on the Berkeley campus.