boutons_deux
12-10-2012, 01:29 PM
Department of Energy labs: 1943–present
Founded in 1943 to address the need to mobilize our nation’s scientific assets to support the war effort—including the Manhattan Project and development of radar—and then afterward to consolidate and repurpose our national investments in military research.
What we invested: A few million dollars in the early 1940s, growing to about $5 billion, or 0.03 percent of GDP, in 2012. (Note: The Department of Energy labs also receive funding from other government agencies outside the department, bringing the total spending of the system closer to $10 billion.)
What we got: The optical digital recording technology behind all music, video, and data storage; fluorescent lights; communications and observation satellites; advanced batteries now used in electric cars; modern water-purification techniques that make drinking water safe for millions; supercomputers used by government, industry, and consumers every day; more resilient passenger jets; better cancer therapies; and the confirmation that it was an asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
National Science Foundation: 1950–present
Championed by Sen. Harley Kilgore of West Virginia, a New Deal politician and small-business man with a deep distrust of the laissez-faire attitude toward science and of large monopolies that at the time controlled much of the country’s scientific enterprise. In response to these issues, the National Science Foundation was founded “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense.”
What we invested: Just $3.5 million for its first full year of operation in 1952 (roughly $29 million in 2012 dollars), growing to $7 billion, or 0.05 percent of GDP, in 2012.
What we got: Google, which was started by a couple of students working on a research project supported by the National Science Foundation, is today worth an estimated $250 billion and employs 54,000 people. This alone would pay for nearly all the program’s costs reaching back to its inception, but funding has also been instrumental in the development of new technologies and companies in nearly every major industry, including advanced electronics, computing, digital communications, environmental resource management, lasers, advanced manufacturing, clean energy, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and higher education.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA: 1958–present
Founded in response to the launch of Sputnik to ensure the United States had cutting-edge military technology, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency now operates as a small R&D team within the Department of Defense, delivering world-leading technology both on the battlefield (think stealth fighter jets) and off (think the Internet). Describing itself today as “one hundred geniuses connected by a travel agent,” the agency continues to work with universities and teams across the country to push scientific boundaries, working on projects like a human exoskeleton and mobile robots capable of performing medical operations.
What we invested: $246 million in the first appropriation in 1962. In 2011 dollars: $1.6 billion. Investment has continued, reaching nearly $3 billion, or 0.02 percent of GDP, in 2012.
What we got: The team that would go on to pioneer technologies that brought us the Internet, the Global Positioning System, and Siri.
The Apollo Space Program: 1961–1969
Two months after the Soviet Union put the first man in orbit, President John F. Kennedy announced the Apollo Space Program to a joint session of Congress, telling the nation, “No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.” He was right. In fixing a national ambition and rallying resources behind it, the United States went from never having put a man in orbit to landing a team on the moon in less than a decade. At the height of Apollo’s efforts, it employed 400,000 Americans and worked with 20,000 partnering institutions.
What we invested: $24 billion. In 2011 dollars: $150 billion.
What we got: Massive technological advancement and the start of huge opportunities for technology transfer, leading to more than 1,500 successful spinoffs related to areas as disparate as heart monitors, solar panels, and cordless innovation. More recently, we’ve seen a fledgling private-sector American space industry with real growth potential, which in 2012 completed its first cargo delivery to the international space station.
Human Genome Project: 1988–2003
Started as a joint project between the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, the Human Genome Project ultimately helped coordinate the work of scientists in countries around the world to map the human genome. In a joint telecast in 2000, President Bill Clinton and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the first phase was complete, with a public working draft of the “genetic blueprint for human beings,” ushering in a new era of medical and scientific advancement.
What we invested: $3.6 billion, or approximately 0.005 percent of GDP spread out over 15 years. In 2011 dollars: roughly $5.7 billion in total.
What we got: Critical tools to help identify, treat, and prevent causes of disease—and huge opportunities for the high-growth American biotechnology industry, which accounts for more than three-quarters of $1 trillion in economic output, or 5.4 percent of GDP, in 2010, and now depends heavily on these advances in genetics.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/technology/report/2012/12/10/47481/the-high-return-on-investment-for-publicly-funded-research/
Founded in 1943 to address the need to mobilize our nation’s scientific assets to support the war effort—including the Manhattan Project and development of radar—and then afterward to consolidate and repurpose our national investments in military research.
What we invested: A few million dollars in the early 1940s, growing to about $5 billion, or 0.03 percent of GDP, in 2012. (Note: The Department of Energy labs also receive funding from other government agencies outside the department, bringing the total spending of the system closer to $10 billion.)
What we got: The optical digital recording technology behind all music, video, and data storage; fluorescent lights; communications and observation satellites; advanced batteries now used in electric cars; modern water-purification techniques that make drinking water safe for millions; supercomputers used by government, industry, and consumers every day; more resilient passenger jets; better cancer therapies; and the confirmation that it was an asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
National Science Foundation: 1950–present
Championed by Sen. Harley Kilgore of West Virginia, a New Deal politician and small-business man with a deep distrust of the laissez-faire attitude toward science and of large monopolies that at the time controlled much of the country’s scientific enterprise. In response to these issues, the National Science Foundation was founded “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense.”
What we invested: Just $3.5 million for its first full year of operation in 1952 (roughly $29 million in 2012 dollars), growing to $7 billion, or 0.05 percent of GDP, in 2012.
What we got: Google, which was started by a couple of students working on a research project supported by the National Science Foundation, is today worth an estimated $250 billion and employs 54,000 people. This alone would pay for nearly all the program’s costs reaching back to its inception, but funding has also been instrumental in the development of new technologies and companies in nearly every major industry, including advanced electronics, computing, digital communications, environmental resource management, lasers, advanced manufacturing, clean energy, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and higher education.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA: 1958–present
Founded in response to the launch of Sputnik to ensure the United States had cutting-edge military technology, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency now operates as a small R&D team within the Department of Defense, delivering world-leading technology both on the battlefield (think stealth fighter jets) and off (think the Internet). Describing itself today as “one hundred geniuses connected by a travel agent,” the agency continues to work with universities and teams across the country to push scientific boundaries, working on projects like a human exoskeleton and mobile robots capable of performing medical operations.
What we invested: $246 million in the first appropriation in 1962. In 2011 dollars: $1.6 billion. Investment has continued, reaching nearly $3 billion, or 0.02 percent of GDP, in 2012.
What we got: The team that would go on to pioneer technologies that brought us the Internet, the Global Positioning System, and Siri.
The Apollo Space Program: 1961–1969
Two months after the Soviet Union put the first man in orbit, President John F. Kennedy announced the Apollo Space Program to a joint session of Congress, telling the nation, “No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.” He was right. In fixing a national ambition and rallying resources behind it, the United States went from never having put a man in orbit to landing a team on the moon in less than a decade. At the height of Apollo’s efforts, it employed 400,000 Americans and worked with 20,000 partnering institutions.
What we invested: $24 billion. In 2011 dollars: $150 billion.
What we got: Massive technological advancement and the start of huge opportunities for technology transfer, leading to more than 1,500 successful spinoffs related to areas as disparate as heart monitors, solar panels, and cordless innovation. More recently, we’ve seen a fledgling private-sector American space industry with real growth potential, which in 2012 completed its first cargo delivery to the international space station.
Human Genome Project: 1988–2003
Started as a joint project between the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, the Human Genome Project ultimately helped coordinate the work of scientists in countries around the world to map the human genome. In a joint telecast in 2000, President Bill Clinton and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the first phase was complete, with a public working draft of the “genetic blueprint for human beings,” ushering in a new era of medical and scientific advancement.
What we invested: $3.6 billion, or approximately 0.005 percent of GDP spread out over 15 years. In 2011 dollars: roughly $5.7 billion in total.
What we got: Critical tools to help identify, treat, and prevent causes of disease—and huge opportunities for the high-growth American biotechnology industry, which accounts for more than three-quarters of $1 trillion in economic output, or 5.4 percent of GDP, in 2010, and now depends heavily on these advances in genetics.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/technology/report/2012/12/10/47481/the-high-return-on-investment-for-publicly-funded-research/