SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, is urging the US Congress to find a balanced, bipartisan plan including tax and entitlement reform to avoid the fiscal cliff -- one that ensures strong support for economy-building science and technology enterprise.
Economic growth in the industrialised world since World War II has been driven by innovation and technological progress, the letter to Congressional leaders says. Besides spawning the Global Positioning System, the laser, and the Internet, technology has enabled countless medical advances that have helped save the lives of millions of heart disease, cancer and diabetes patients, among others. Almost every national priority -- from health and defence, to agriculture and conservation -- relies on science and engineering, the letter notes.
Federal R&D investments account for less than one-fifth of the current discretionary budget, but discretionary spending is the only place where deep cuts would be made if sequestration goes into effect, the letter observes. It states: "Placing a significant burden on these crucial areas is nothing less than a threat to national competitiveness."
The letter warns that several countries in Asia and Europe have increased their research intensities substantially and at a far faster pace than the US, threatening the nation's long-term leadership position in science, technology and innovation. "Allowing blunt cuts to R&D to go forward will only accelerate these trends," the letter says.
Robert Lieberman, chair of the SPIE committee on Engineering Science and Technology Policy, emphasised the importance of federal funding for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and R&D on competitiveness in technologies enabled by optics and photonics.
He cited findings of the recent National Academies report "Optics and Photonics, Essential Technologies for the Nation," on "the crucial role education plays in ensuring a vibrant future," and the trend of domestic workforce shrinkage in STEM fields.
Sequestration would require up to $12 billion in R&D funding cuts annually across defence and non-defence programmes over the next decade, the letter to Congress says.
Among the impacts DARPA (Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency) would lose over $1 billion for cutting-edge innovation and the NIH (National Institutes of Health) would lose $11.3 billion for research on medical challenges including those related to cancer, obesity, aging, and emerging diseases. The other impacts are the Department of Energy would lose $4.6 billion through 2017 for next-generation energy research and nonproliferation R&D and the National Science Foundation would lose $2.1 billion over five years for research across a broad spectrum of disciplines, most of which is cutting-edge research conducted at universities throughout the nation.
