As the attached chart illustrates, R&D outlays peaked in fiscal 2011 at $140.9 billion, according to data compiled by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This year’s projected spending of $131 billion represents 3.4 percent of the federal budget, which would be the fifth straight annual drop in percentage terms.
“Federally funded research pays powerful innovation dividends, which, incidentally, accrue to savvy investors,” Quinlan wrote two days ago in a report. He cited the U.S. role in developing technology for cancer drugs and for hydraulic fracturing, the energy-drilling method known as fracking.
Investors may increasingly have to go outside the U.S. to find similar payoffs, the New York-based strategist wrote. He cited the association’s figures, along with a study that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published last month.
MIT’s report, entitled “The Future Postponed,” was produced by a committee of 30 professors at the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They highlighted battery technology, biological engineering and other fields in which the U.S. is falling behind in R&D.
“America is short-changing its future by forgoing outlays in basic research and development,” Quinlan wrote. He referred to this shift as the answer to a question he’s often asked by clients: “So what keeps you awake at night?”
