Sci-Finance
No money for the national science foundation means fewer business innovations.
By Joshua Kurlantzick •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It gave us radar systems, bar codes that identify virtuallyevery product and numerous other innovations. Yet funding for theNational Science Foundation (NSF), the federal organization whosegrant money has led to so many business innovations, has fallenbehind that of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), whichfocuses on biomedical research.
During the Cold War, federal R&D money was channeled intophysical sciences like engineering that were tied to nationaldefense. But between 1985 and 2001, federal spending on physicalsciences as a percentage of GDP plummeted 29 percent. Instead,R&D money has been targeted toward NIH.
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