Lawmakers ask for US academic research assessment

Expressing concern that the nation’s research universities may be losing their preeminence, a bipartisan and bicameral group of lawmakers has asked the National Academies to assess the competitiveness of the US institutions and recommend steps to ensure their continued world leadership.

The letter to the academies was signed by senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), chairwoman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies , and Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. Representatives Bart Gordon (D-TN) and Ralph Hall (R-TX), the respective chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Science and Technology, also requested the report.

The lawmakers pointed out that a similar congressional request in 2005 resulted in the academies’ report Rising Above the Gathering Storm , which warned of declining US technological competitiveness and led to the 2007 America COMPETES Act , which called for doubling federal funding for physical sciences research and improving science and mathematics education.

The United States is home to most of the best research universities in the world. They are our secret weapon for creating jobs,” Alexander said. “But other nations are catching up. We need the best minds in our country to help us figure out how to maintain this competitive advantage.”

America’s research universities are powerhouses of innovation, incubators for the ideas and breakthroughs that have made America an economic superpower,” said Mikulski. “We need the best minds working on what steps we can take today to keep our nation innovating tomorrow and every day after that.”

In their 22 June letter, the lawmakers asked the presidents of the academies to recommend the “top 10" actions that Congress, state governments, universities and others could take “to maintain the excellence in research and doctoral education needed to help the United States compete, prosper and achieve national goals for health, energy and the environment and security in the global community of the 21st century.”

The study should include an assessment of the relationship (or lack thereof) between universities and other parts of the nation’s research enterprise, such as the national laboratories and corporate research labs, the letter stated.

David Kramer