United States, Congress office of Technology Assessment. Applications of R&D in the Civil Sector The Opportunity Provided by the Federal Grant HC 110 .14 A53 1778 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 78-600062 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office The Federal Government now spends about $28 billion per year on research and development (R&D) activities and facilities in the United States. With another $20 billion per year from the private sector, the total national investment in R&D approaches $50 billion annually. Large though this total is, it portrays only a small portion of the overall impact of R&D on the economy and the quality of life in our society. Research and development is the engine that drives the currents of change in our civilization. From R&D stem the inventions, techniques, and processes that propel innovations through our economic and social systems. Moreover, it has been estimated that, on the average, each person engaged in R&D eventually generates 6 to 10 other jobs throughout the economy. As a consequence, the $48 billion annual national investment in R&D has a massive multiplier effect on our entire socioeconomic system. Therefore, it behooves Congress to consider this investment carefully and to pay close attention to the ways in which it is allocated and used, as well as to the framework of laws, regulations, incentives, and constraints whereby the fruits of scientific research and development are converted into operational results. Furthermore, R&D and the process of innovation help to determine the options and establish many of the parameters whereby specific technologies can be assessed for their potential impacts on society. In assessing a particular technology, the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) compares its advantages and disadvantages with those of alternative technologies and assesses its impact on economic, social, environmental, and political factors within a perspective of probable future human needs, capabilities, and values. To carry out its assessments effectively, OTA needs a thorough understanding of the Nation's R&D effort and of the process whereby R&D results are converted into useful innovations. While helping to strengthen and integrate OTA's overall assessment activities, such understanding also enables OTA to assist the Congress in better shaping the national investment in R&D by developing more soundly based R&D policies and priorities. Thus, through such understanding, OTA can more effectively fulfill its mandate to give Congress early indication of the impacts of technological change. In response to these needs and the urging of a number of congressional committees and individual Members, the OTA Board authorized a Program of R&D Policies and Priorities, which became operational in May 1976. Recognizing that such an assessment cannot be carried out effectively through a single, comprehensive project which attempts to address all facets of the problem, the Program was designed to proceed through a series of manageable, interrelated studies which will help to build an understanding of how to maximize the beneficial impacts of our total R&D enterprise. The Program has operated with the guidance of three interrelated Advisory Panels made up of distinguished leaders of science, technology, industry, labor, the professions, and the consumer, environmental, and public interest movements. The Panel on the Health of the Scientific and Technical Enterprise, chaired by Dr. Harvey Brooks, Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy at Harvard University, has been concerned with ways we can maintain and enhance the health and vitality of the entire scientific and technical enterprise. The Panel on the Applications of Science and Technology, chaired by Dr. Lewis M. Branscomb, Vice President and Chief Scientist of the IBM Corporation, has been concerned with how we can more effectively apply science and technology to ameliorate the processes of innovation, augment America's international competitive position, solve national and social problems, and enhance the qualify of life. The Panel on Decisionmaking on R&D Policies and Priorities, chaired by Dr. Gilbert F. White, Director of the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado, has been concerned with how we improve the decisionmaking processes whereby the Nation establishes policies and priorities for R&D. During coming months, OTA will issue a series of reports on the Program all intended to inform and aid Congress in dealing with the complex issues of R&D policies and priorities. The first of these reports is the Applications of R&D in the Civil Sector: The Opportunity Provided by the Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act of 1977. This Act, which was signed into law February 3, 1978, is a major step forward in bringing greater order to the diversity of Federal assistance programs. The framework established by the Act has important implications for federally funded R&D and for the Federal impact on innovation involving private industry, the universities and nonprofit organizations, and State and local governments. Over the next 2 years, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be engaged in a major study of Federal assistance mandated by the Act. Through their oversight function, interested congressional committees have a key role to play in assuring the effective implementation of this Act. America's scientific and technical enterprise is a powerful instrument with enormous potential for national progress. How effectively this Act is implemented will be an important factor in determining how fully we tap that potential. It is hoped this report will aid Congress in shaping the effort. Aussell W. Peterson RUSSELL W. PETERSON Office of Technology Assessment |