Research Workforce Will Weaken Without Focus on Homegrown Talent

Calling science and technology “the engines of US economic growth and national security,” the National Science Board (NSB) has released a report that says the future of the country’s research and engineering workforce is seriously imperiled by increasing global competition for science talent and by a lack of federal support for US-born science students.

It is “imperative that the federal government reassess its role in the preparation of the nation’s S&E [science and engineering] workforce,” the report says. The federal government has the “primary responsibility to lead the nation in developing and implementing a coordinated, effective response to our long-term needs for science and engineering skills … in ways unlikely to be addressed by market mechanisms or … at the state and local levels.”

The report recommends a “national policy imperative” that calls on the federal government to “step forward to ensure the adequacy of the US science and engineering workforce.” The goal of the imperative should be to “mobilize and initiate efforts that increase the number of US citizens pursuing science and engineering studies and careers.” The report was written by the NSB’s task force on national workforce policies for science and engineering, chaired by chemist Joseph Miller, the executive vice president and chief technology officer of Corning Inc, Corning, New York. The NSB is the governing body of NSF.

“US employers have grown increasingly dependent on the global S&E workforce to meet needs in industry, government, and academia,” the report says. In 1999, it notes, one-third of all workers with S&E PhDs in US industry were foreign born. “Among computer scientists, the proportion was half, and among engineers it was more than half.” In the federal government, 16% of those with PhDs were foreign born, the report notes, and “in academia, about 20% of the yearly job openings for college and university faculty in S&E are being filled by permanent residents or temporary-visa holders.”

The report makes recommendations in five specific problem areas where the board feels federal action is needed to avert an “unfolding crisis.”

• ▸ Undergraduate education in S&E. The federal government must direct substantial new support to students and institutions in order to improve success in S&E study by US undergraduates, the report says. Suggested steps include more scholarships and other financial assistance to qualified students, incentives to schools to expand their S&E programs, and more support for community colleges to increase the number of high-ability students who transfer to S&E programs at four-year schools.

• ▸ Advanced S&E education. Federal support for research and graduate education should respond to the economic needs of students, and promote a wider range of education options aligned with the skills the US needs, the report says. Pointing to a “general consensus that the physical sciences, engineering, and mathematics are not attracting domestic students in the numbers that will be required in the near future,” the report says students are not choosing S&E for financial and lifestyle reasons. The report recommends that the federal government ensure that stipends for graduate and postdoctoral students come with benefits and be competitive with other academic fields.

• ▸ Precollege teaching workforce for mathematics, science, and technology. The government should act now to retain an adequate cadre of well-qualified precollege teachers in S&E, the report says. Such teachers should be paid similarly to professionals in other fields, and the government should expedite teacher certification for professional scientists who wish to become teachers.

• ▸ US engagement in the international science and engineering workforce. To retain a significant number of foreign researchers, the US must overcome antiterrorism-related visa problems. “In light of growing international competition for high-skilled students and professionals in S&E, the US needs visa and immigration policies that provide a clearly understood and straightforward set of options,” the report says.

• ▸ The knowledge base on the S&E workforce. The report says the government needs better data on the current S&E workforce and the technical skills that will be needed in the near future. The government also needs to “substantially raise its investment in research [about] … international workforce dynamics,” the report says.

“The evidence is unambiguous,” the report concludes. “The federal government has a primary responsibility to lead the nation in developing and implementing a coordinated, effective response to our long-term needs for science and engineering skills. US global leadership and future national prosperity and security depend on meeting this challenge.”