Paul Statt Communications

Investments in scientific research return financial dividends that would make a hedge fund envious. The “multiplier” for Federal dollars spent on NIH funding is better than it for most spending. Families USA, the national organization for health care consumers, measured the benefits of NIH research awards to all 50 states in 2007. “In Your Own Backyard,” their study, calculated that the NIH awarded almost $23 billion in research grants and contracts. That funding created more than 350,000 new jobs nationwide, generated more than $18 billion in wages from those new jobs, and spurred more than $50 billion in business activity.

The year 2009-2010 will be the most exciting in decades for university research. It’s no leap of faith to believe that energy, health care and education are the keys to raising the United States from its economic mess, and President Obama has promised that spending in those fields will increase. Universities such as Temple will benefit from the improved funding for education; less well understood perhaps is how important research is in American higher education.

Research at schools such as Temple University has many goals, and tries to reach those goals in many different ways. Some researchers are trying to cure diseases, some are trying to create more efficient technology. Many researchers are just trying to understand the mysteries of modern life. The immense transformative power of research and innovation can improve the lives of Americans. Infrastructure to improve America’s competitiveness and technology to solve our nation’s most pressing problems — providing clean energy, lowering healthcare costs, and improving public safety.

Scientific research has yielded innovations that have improved the landscape of American life — technologies like the Internet, digital photography, bar codes, Global Positioning System technology, laser surgery, and chemotherapy. At one time, educational competition with the Soviets fostered the creativity that put a man on the moon. Today, we face a new set of challenges, including energy security, HIV/AIDS, and climate change.

Research at Temple has resulted in products that benefit all of us in small ways–a cheaper healthier roach trap, for instance–as well as large. The world’s first institute dedicated to providing the pharmaceutical industry with environmentally sound processes just opened here–withe the help of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Science Foundation.

Yet, the United States is losing its scientific dominance. Among industrialized nations, our country’s scores on international science and math tests rank in the bottom third and bottom fifth, respectively. Over the last three decades, federal funding for the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences has declined at a time when other countries are substantially increasing their own research budgets. Scientific research must play an important role in advancing science and technology in the classroom and in the lab.

Investing in scientific research serves a dual purpose: it is an immediate stimulus to the economy and an investment in US leadership in science, engineering, technology and education. Investments in medical research in particular can address urgent health-care needs.

Spending on science, engineering and technology is only a part of the stimulus package. But it is important to recall that basic science research in the US is largely funded by grants to individual investigators or national laboratories from federal agencies such as the NIH and NSF. Federal money invested in research grants, scientific infrastructure or national laboratories can be spent immediately to support research programmes already approved, salaries for laboratory scientists, purchases of supplies and equipment (most from small US businesses) and institutional expenses of the colleges, universities and medical schools where researchers work. Much scientific research is “shovel-ready;” that universities facilities are in place and only need cash to run.

President Obama has often said that in the future, international prosperity will depend on the United States becoming an “innovation economy.” The administration’s economic recovery package includes added spending for areas favored by innovation policy advocates, including higher research and development spending and funds for high-technology fields like electronic health records. But it also represents a welcome return of science in the political discourse. The attitude towards science is changing in government.

When he announced his choice of Nobel-prize-winning physicist Steven Chu to head the energy department, Obama said that promoting science is not just about providing resources (though he has promised to double the budget for basic science research over the next decade), but also about promoting free inquiry and listening to what scientists have to say, “especially when it is inconvenient.” That’s a clear reference to Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” about global warming. A government that puts its faith in science also reminds what we expect from research: the miracles that result when we practice science with faith in the future.