Navigating Through Stormy Waters

Joe Allen
Bayh-Dole Coalition
 




It’s not easy living at a time when the institutions we’ve long relied upon are being hit from all directions. Fundamental questions are being asked about the role and value of federally funded research. But rather than hoping that someone else will steer us to safety, it’s up to us to help weather the storm.

This is the 80^th anniversary of Vannevar Bush’s visionary recommendations to President Roosevelt, “Science: The Endless Frontier,” that laid the groundwork for the government funding basic research. That was a bold course in 1945. 

Prior to World War II, Washington had a limited role supporting research but to meet the emergencies of the war, Bush helped create the world’s greatest research engine, bringing academic institutions, federal laboratories, and industry into the mix. Winning the scientific race was essential for defeating Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. But President Roosevelt wondered what to do with this resource as the war wound down. One fear was that the country might return to the Great Depression, so the President endorsed Bush’s concept.

Bush also recommended that those who create new technologies at our public research institutions be allowed to manage them for development. Unfortunately, that recommendation was not implemented, and for 35 years inventions largely gathered dust because the necessary authorities and incentives for commercialization were lacking. The Bayh-Dole Act solved the problem, decentralizing technology management from the Washington bureaucracy into the hands of the academic institutions, federal laboratories, and small business contractors conducting federally funded R&D. That helped ignite the greatest explosion of creativity in human history.

So, what does that have to do with today? As in 1945, questions are again being asked about the role of government in funding research and what return on investment hard pressed taxpayers should expect in return.
President Trump just tasked Michael Kratsios, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, with revisiting Vannevar Bush’s paper that “laid the groundwork for the uniquely successful American partnership of Government, industry, and academia that built the greatest and most productive nation in human history.” 

Kratsios is to consider:

• “How can the United States secure its position as the unrivaled world leader in critical and emerging technologies.”
• “How can we revitalize America’s science and technology enterprise,” and
• “How can we ensure that scientific progress and technological innovation fuel economic growth and better the lives of all Americans?”

These are questions we can address, not with unproven theories but with hands-on experience. That gives us a real advantage in the current debate, but we have to make our case. 

Here are three things you can do:

• Stay up to date on the rapidly changing challenges we face with the AUTM Public Policy Committee.
• If you’re going to Washington, DC, work with your Congressional relations office to meet with the appropriate House and Senate staff. They need to know how your institution is helping grow the economy while improving public well-being.
• Follow the Bayh-Dole Coalition and public policy with resources you can use.

Reaffirming the Vannevar Bush/ Bayh-Dole model is the key to a prosperous 21^st century. And that will have bi-partisan support if we get the message out while it counts.