Tuesday, July 06, 2021

Infrastructure and competitiveness

With the recent passage in the US Senate of an authorization that would potentially boost certain scientific investments by the US, and the House of Representatives version passing its versions for NSF and DOE, talk of "competitiveness" is in the air.  It took a while, but it seems to have dawned on parts of the US Congress that it would be broadly smart for the country to invest more in science and engineering research and education.  (Note that authorizations are not appropriations - declaring that they want to increase investment doesn't actually commit Congress to actually spending the money that way.  A former representative from my area routinely voted for authorizations to double the NSF budget, and then did not support the appropriations, so that he could claim to be both pro-science and anti-spending.) 

Looking through my old posts on related topics, I came across this one from 2014, about investment in shared research equipment at universities and DOE labs.  Since then, the NSF's former National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network has been replaced by the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure organization, but the overall federal support for this fantastic resource has actually gone down in real dollars, since its annual budget is unchanged since then at $16M/yr.  As I wrote back in 2014, in an era when one high end transmission electron microscope can cost $8M or more, that seems like underinvestment if the goal is to maximize innovation by making top-flight shared research instruments available to the broadest cross-section of universities and businesses.   

I reiterate my suggestion:  Companies (google? Intel? Microsoft? SpaceX? Tesla? 3M? Dupont? IBM?) and wealthy individuals who truly want to have a more competitive science and engineering workforce and innovation base should consider establishing an endowed entity to support research equipment and staffing at universities.   A comparatively modest investment ($300M) could support more than the entire NNCI every year, in perpetuity.  


3 comments:

Peter Morgan said...

Your comment about competitiveness brought to mind this, from this week's FYI from the AIP, https://www.aip.org/fyi/fyi-this-week/week-july-5-2021, "During the floor debate, House Science Committee Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) argued that Congress should not craft science policy principally through the lens of competition with China, which is the central purpose of the Senate bill. “While we should be cognizant of our increasing global competition, we must not be constrained by it. To continue to lead, we must chart our own course,” she remarked."
I only take from this that there is at least some recognition that "competitiveness" is only one of many criteria. "To continue to lead, we must chart our own course" seems rather cliché'd rhetoric, and the idea of being in the lead rather than being in a shared venture is still nationalistic, but it does look towards the horizons you suggest at least a little.

Anonymous said...

It is also worth mentioning that even for universities that have expensive high-end instruments - like TEM, FIB, HIM, etc. - the per hour cost is typically very expensive for research groups who don't specialize in such instruments. Usage fees of upwards of $100-150 per hour is not unheard of! And it gets even more expensive if you need to use equipment at another institution. The result is that many groups simply have to pass along samples to specialist groups anyways.

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Naghahanap ako ng tulong sa internet upang maibalik ang aking dating asawa pagkatapos na hiwalayan niya ako 5 buwan na ang nakakaraan, napansin ko ang napakaraming mga patotoo mula sa iba't ibang mga tao at lahat sila ay nagsasalita tungkol sa kamangha-manghang taong ito na tinawag na Doctor AKHERE kung paano niya sila tinulungan upang makatipid ang kanilang kasal at mga relasyon at nakipag-ugnay din ako sa kanya sa kanyang email (AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com) at ipinaliwanag sa kanya ang aking problema at gumawa siya ng isang magandang trabaho sa pamamagitan ng pagtulong sa akin na maibalik ang aking diborsyo na asawa sa loob ng 48 na oras .. Hindi ako naniniwala na ganoon ang mga bagay na tulad nito ay maaaring posible ngunit ngayon ako ay isang buhay na patotoo dito sapagkat talagang binalik ng Doctor AKHERE ang aking kasintahan, Kung mayroon kang anumang mga problema sa relasyon bakit hindi makipag-ugnay sa Doctor AKHERE para sa tulong sa pamamagitan ng email: AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com o tumawag / whatsapp : +2349057261346
Pagkatapos ipinapangako ko sa iyo na pagkatapos ng 48 na oras magkakaroon ka ng mga dahilan upang ipagdiwang tulad ko