U.S. Losing Technology Edge, Panel Says : Research: A National Science Foundation study says the slide must be reversed if the nation is to remain competitive.
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WASHINGTON — A National Science Foundation panel warned Wednesday that the United States is losing its competitive edge in technologies of the future.
Blaming government incompetence, leveraged buyouts and executives’ and investors’ short-term focus, the blue-ribbon panel urged Americans to wake up before Japan and Europe develop technologies and products that dominate tomorrow’s economy.
“U.S. competitive position in important, technologically based industries is deteriorating,” said the National Science Board, the NSF’s policy arm. “U.S. industry has already lost its leadership in several technologies that are critical to industrial performance.”
Roland W. Schmitt, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and co-chair of the panel, said the 78-page study “paints a grim picture” of a country that will continue to lose ground to foreigners unless action is taken.
It said ways to improve performance include studying process technologies to make better products, training more engineers and creating a better understanding of the role of research.
The panel also recommended a tax credit for research and a moratorium on tax increases for multinationals that have to account for foreign development costs as if they were domestic expenses.
Schmitt co-chaired the panel with Arden L. Berment Jr., TRW Inc.’s vice president for science and technology.
Berment said the survey’s conclusions “send a strong signal about U.S. industrial R&D; and suggest that continuing drift and stagnation will be fatal to technological competitiveness in the long run.”
The foundation, a government-funded institution, pinned some of the blame for the U.S. losing ground in technology on the federal government. It pays only 11% of American research costs, the panel reported.
“There is no systematic tracking of the levels of funding,” the study said. Taxpayers can’t determine if the $30.4 billion the government allocated for research in the current fiscal year is being spent properly.
Industry, which accounts for 71% of the national research tab, and universities, which account for 15%, don’t do a good job either, the panel contended.
