Research and Development

Prior to World War II the U.S. government played only a minor role in R&D funding. Private foundations, corporations, and internal university funds provided the bulk of support. The U.S. military funded some advanced development of technologies for deployment in Army and Navy equipment, but it did not provide significant support for basic research. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, precursor to NASA) played an important role in developing and testing new airfoil designs in the 1930s. The Department of Agriculture, through the Hatch Act of 1887, supported agricultural research at the land grant colleges. Federal support for basic research in the health sciences, and hence in biology, dates to the latter part of the nineteenth century but began as a major funding activity in the 1930s with the establishment of the National Institutes of Health. Except for these and a few other isolated examples, however, there was no systematic federal support for scientific research.

The obvious importance of science and technology to the war effort during World War II led to a new role for the U.S. government in supporting not only applied research for immediate military applications but also basic research. The August 1939 letter from Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt ultimately led to an understanding during and after WWII of the need for federal support for basic research in fields such as nuclear physics. The federal government has been the mainstay of funding for basic research in the physical sciences and engineering ever since, through agencies such as the Office of Naval Research, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the National Science Foundation, all of which trace their origins to the aftermath of World War II and the early days of the cold war.

Federal support for R&D increased steadily through the 1950s and early 1960s, including considerable funding for basic research in particle physics, electronics, and materials science needed for the space program and the military. This research in turn led to major benefits for the civilian economy, including civilian nuclear power, inexpensive and ubiquitous integrated circuits, the widespread use of computers in the banking industry, and dramatic advances in air travel. All these advances stemmed in part from increased understanding and control of the properties of matter at the atomic and molecular scale.

Federal R&D funding leveled off and even declined somewhat in real dollars starting in the late 1960s, but it increased from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, with increases in federal support for energy and military research.^[4] The National Institutes of Health also received sustained funding increases, notably with the advent of Richard Nixon's war on cancer and more recently with the bipartisan pledge to double the overall NIH budget in the first few years of the twenty-first century.

Throughout this period the federal investment in research continued to return significant dividends for military security, the civilian economy, and health carewith advances in military electronics that dramatically improved the performance of U.S. forces, novel treatments for many diseases, and the development of the Internet. The U.S. standard of living and life expectancy grew dramatically during the entire postWorld War II period, fueled to a large extent by advances in science and technology funded by the U.S. government.

In fact, basic research in particle physics and materials science conducted in the national laboratory system during the latter half of the twentieth century greatly enhanced our understanding of the properties of matter on the atomic and molecular scales, developing along the way novel methods of measuring, visualizing, and controlling these properties. Research funded by the National Institutes of Health improved our understanding of the basic operating principles of life itself. Much of this basic and applied research funded by the federal government in the latter half of the twentieth century provided the foundation on which the nanotechnology revolution of the twenty-first century will be constructed.

The Federal Role in Nanoscale Research and Development: Basic and Applied

Although political parties have debated the role of the federal government in applied research over the last several decades, there has been largely unanimous support across a wide expanse of the political spectrum for basic research funding. That's because private corporations cannot justify large investments in basic science that, as important as they are to our future, may take decades to provide reasonable returns on the investments, and it may be difficult for private corporations to capture such returns. In recent years, this federal role has been even more important as large corporations such as AT&T and RCA have scaled down or eliminated the investments they had been making in basic research during the mid-twentieth century. NNI participating agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Science at the Department of Energy (DOE) provide a key role in supporting basic nanoscale science and engineering research.

The appropriate federal role in supporting applied research has been debated publicly in recent years. The mission agenciessuch as the Department of Defense (DoD), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)have an agreed role in supporting applied research and even product development that will directly contribute to their respective missions. These agencies have identified numerous opportunities where applied research in nanotechnology can make important contributions to their missions. Examples include DoD support for development of nanotechnology-enabled sensors to detect chemical, biological, radiological, and explosives agents; NASA support for development of flexible, lightweight, and superstrong materials for future spacecraft; and NIH support for development of nanostructures that can be used to selectively target tumor cells with either radiation or chemotherapy.

Research at the intersection of traditional scientific and engineering disciplines is a requirement if we are to make rapid progress in nanoscale science, technology, and applications. The agencies participating in the NNI encourage such interdisciplinary research through several mechanisms, including funding of small multidisciplinary teams as well as large research centers involving faculty from many different disciplinary departments, and ultimately promoting the development of a new generation of young researchers not bound by the traditional disciplinary divisions.