In recent years, federal funding for scientific research has been declining. For instance, budgets at the National Institutes of Health are nearly twenty percent smaller than they were a decade ago. In order to persuade Congress that investment in research is valuable, scientists have begun to publish economic statistics regarding the efficacy of R&D.
For instance, according to published research, every one hundred million dollars investment in research by the National Institutes of Health generates approximately six patents. At the National Science Foundation, one hundred million dollars produces more than ten patents. At the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, which finances research in radiology, nearly twenty five patents are produced.
As reported in the New York Times, these patents spark about five hundred and eighty million dollars’ worth of additional R&D further downstream. It seems strange that scientists couldn’t simply point to scientific achievements such as the development of new therapies and cures to make their case, but such is the state of American policymaking these days. Philanthropy supports about two billion dollars a year to basic research, but that represents a relatively small share of total need.
