Today, I submitted a comment in response to the Office of Science and Technology Policy's (OSTP) request for information on how to accelerate the American scientific enterprise.
Introduction
The scientific enterprise is a historical driver of strong economic growth and human flourishing. It is the wellspring of the vital inventiveness of the American people who, tinkering with the knowledge, electrons, and atoms of the world around them, construct the turbines and architecture of the next era of industrial activity.
The scientific enterprise should not be abused as a slush fund for the salaries of college professors or to provide a guaranteed income for the banal academic and administrative activities that commonly compose the training and tenure process. Science should not be a lever used to promote bias or ideology. The good of science, its aim, purpose, and nature, are not the virtues of equality or of justice or even of liberty; science is neutral on these fronts. Indeed, science receives the adulation and deference of the common man because it uncovers knowledge. Science is our truth-seeking tool. What man does with this knowledge is a part of, though must be separate from, the root of its fundamental enterprise. But this view, at risk of understating the problem, is rarely observed.
In his later writings, Vannevar Bush was attentive to the rhetoric of the no-strings-attached view of science funding which his landmark report Science: the Endless Frontier inaugurated. At the time, there was a belief that the aim of university-based research and research funding was discovery, and that the scientists and researchers, when afforded independence through funding, would proceed in value-free research enabled by the best-use of their energies. Clearly, this tacit contract between researchers and the public has broken down. Today, new efforts must be inaugurated to accelerate and improve the scientific ecosystem if we hope to restore the integrity and trustworthiness of the enterprise.
In this light, the activities of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to restore science to its gold standard must be lauded.
It is a privilege to respond to this RFI on “Accelerating the American Scientific Enterprise.” Please find our answers to the following questions below:
(ii) How can the Federal government better support the translation of scientific discoveries from academia, national laboratories, and other research institutions into practical applications? Specifically, what changes to technology transfer policies, translational programs, or commercial incentives would accelerate the path from laboratory to market?
(iii) What policies would encourage the formation and scaling of regional innovation ecosystems that connect local businesses, universities, educational institutions, and the local workforce—particularly in areas where the Federal government has existing research assets like national laboratories or federally-funded research centers?
(vi) What reforms will enable the American scientific enterprise to pursue more high-risk, high-reward research that could transform our scientific understanding and unlock new technologies, while sustaining the incremental science essential for cumulative production of knowledge?
(x) How can Federal programs better identify and develop scientific talent across the country, particularly leveraging digital tools and distributed research models to engage researchers outside traditional academic centers?
(xi) How can the Federal government foster closer collaboration among scientists, engineers, and skilled technical workers, and better integrate training pathways, recognizing that breakthrough research often requires deep collaboration between theoretical and applied expertise?
(xiii) How can the Federal government strengthen research security to protect sensitive technologies and dual-use research while minimizing compliance burdens on researchers?
