Charles Vest

Will '€˜America Competes' Act Help America Compete?

Washington Report

October / November 07 By: Tom Michael Volume 5 Number 5

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For more than two years, lawmakers in Washington have talked about forging a new federal policy to help America keep its competitive edge in math and science. This past summer, they did just that, approving the America Competes Act and sending it to President Bush, who promptly signed the bill into law.

"The bill I sign today will help ensure that we do remain the most competitive and innovative nation in the world," Bush said during a low-key signing ceremony at the White House.

The $34 billion bill aims to accelerate U.S. proficiency in math and science by boosting research investment, expanding education in science, technology and engineering and developing a new "innovation infrastructure."

The measure—€”if funded by congressional appropriators—€” will:
—€¢ Double funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) from approximately $5.6 billion in fiscal year 2006 to $11.2 billion in FY2011.

—€¢ Set the Department of Energy's Office of Science on track to double in funding over ten years, increasing from $3.6 billion in FY2006 to over $5.2 billion in FY2011.
—€¢ Establish the Innovation Acceleration Research Program to direct federal agencies funding research in science and technology to set as a goal the dedication of approximately 8 percent of their research and development budgets toward high-risk frontier research.
—€¢ Suggest boosting funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) from approximately $703 million in FY2008 to approximately $937 million in FY2011 and requiring NIST to set aside no less than 8 percent of its annual funding for high-risk, high-reward innovation acceleration research.
—€¢ Establish a President's Council on Innovation and Competitiveness to develop a comprehensive agenda to promote innovation and competitiveness in the public and private sectors.
—€¢ Require the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study to identify forms of risk that create barriers to innovation.

Many in the science and venture capital communities will applaud those goals, but the celebration can't begin in earnest until Congress follows through and appropriates the money in its annual budgets.

Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a key architect of the America Competes bill, said he's concerned that might not happen—€”especially with an exorbitantly expensive war in Iraq stretching federal budgets.

"The real issue is whether we'll follow through," Bingaman said in an interview with Innovation. "I'm very concerned we'll get a bunch of proposals from the administration that fall substantially below what we were trying to do in the bill."

In May 2005, Bingaman and Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., asked the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering and the Institute of Medicine to list 20 actions federal policy makers could take to boost U.S. science and technology enterprise. Students in nations such as India, China and Pakistan are regularly outperforming U.S. students in technology-related academic disciplines.

After the agencies reported back, Bingaman and Alexander went to work with congressional colleagues crafting legislation that ultimately became the America Competes Act.

Charles Vest, president of the National Academies of Science and Engineering and former MIT president, told Innovation that the bill brilliantly melds education and application.

"One of the things that really pleases me about the legislation is that it does push with equal force on the education/workforce agenda and as well as on increases for research, engineering and physical sciences," Vest said.

He said venture capitalists should be encouraged by the bill even if it doesn't immediately bear fruit for them.

"They say that being a good venture capitalist means you are trying to find good engineers," Vest said. "Over a number of years, this will encourage more kids to go into math and science.

"It will create additional yeast for entrepreneurship."

The education components are critical, Vest said. "We're meeting a desperate need to create a substantial number of K-12 teachers who will actually be educated in the subjects they teach," Vest said. "It is a really important long-term investment for the country to start ramping up our K-12 education."

Bill Bonvillian, director of MIT's Washington office, helped write the bill as a former aide to Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. He said the provision doubling R&D spending at the various science institutions, such as the National Science Foundation, should reap deep benefits in the coming years.

"That is particularly important because physical science-based R&D has been stagnating since the end of the Cold War," Bonvillian said.

Bonvillian and Vest lauded Congress's decision to use the bill to establish an Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E), patterned after DARPA, to support high-risk, high-reward research. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense. It manages and directs selected basic and applied research and development projects for DoD, and pursues research and technology where risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions.

"They (ARPA-E) will work on breakthrough R&D and help transition it toward the product development stage," Bonvillian said. "It's not just basic research but aiming against entering the valley of death stage."

The law also encourages federal agencies with a mission to conduct science-based R&D to direct at least 8 percent of those budgets to high-risk, cutting-edge projects. Bonvillian said that will give conservative federal agencies a nudge to break out of the box more often.

"When there are too many applications and not enough money they end up funding only the safest projects," he said.

Senator Bingaman said the president and Congress will reveal their commitment to the new law when the 2009 budget process begins in earnest early next year and the president submits his budget blueprint. He's keeping his fingers crossed.
"We did a reasonably good job of taking the recommendations of industry, government and technology and putting them into legislation," Bingaman said. "I think it will have a significant impact if we follow through and fund it."

Tom Michael reports from Washington for Innovation.