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Increasingly, new science and technology are expected to solve the nation's current economic malaise. Unfortunately, virtually no industrial laboratories are devoted to anything close to basic research, which, historically, has been the source of many of the innovations on which industry has flourished in the past. For example, a number of industrial laboratories contributed significantly to our basic understanding of polymer science and, in the course of doing so, made better and more useful plastics. The strength of the American system of higher education has always been basic research, which is also the cornerstone of the process of graduate education. Before World War II, academic research was the vehicle by which advanced students learned advanced skills--both cognitive and manipulative. It was the structure devised to produce exemplary scientists who could then apply their skills in a number of different kinds of environments; the research results produced were generally of only secondary interest. Now, the academic research establishment has evolved into the source of the "strategic," "relevant," or "targeted" research that will solve the nation's economic problems. As expectations in this regard grow higher, guidelines are bound to become even more specific. Excessive over-direction of basic research activities can have the effect of throttling down the very industry-building discoveries that are so eagerly sought.
From one point of view, targeted academic research often goes in the wrong direction. While it is true that most academic research starts off in some direction, it often does not finish going in that direction. The work that stands behind theses and dissertations often bears little resemblance to the problem that was defined when the student began his/her research. Almost every paper that is written as the result of a piece of academic research is either unsophisticatedin itsdetails or irrelevant, in spite of the initial hopes and promises. That process upon which academic research builds its ability to develop skilled scientists--a process that is not really dependent upon reaching a specific target--will not produce the science and technology that some say the nation needs to solve its economic problems. It is highly probable that the academic research now being supported will not have much effect upon our economic future; however, the people produced by that system will. Many careful observers have concluded that having universities do industry-relevant research would necessarily mean the abandonment of basic inquiry, a process akin to eating our seed corn.
The collective wisdom of some industry executives is that undirected, long-term research does not pay off, a conclusion that is consonant with the general abandonment of research efforts in that sector. With industry increasingly disinclined to invest its resources in long-term or unfocussed projects, and NSF and other agency resources inadequate, basic research funding continues to be the target of politicians, calling for more industry-related effort.
Research--a process designed to make discoveries or acquire knowledge--has many shades of meaning, which often muddies discussions. Academic research is designed to decrease our collective store of ignorance. Unanswered questions are the single-most valuable commodity we can lay before our graduate students and use as a focus for their advanced education. We do not understand how the vast store of information that exists, together with our ignorance, can be used to solve the nation's problems, which may have only a relatively short time base. Research that impacts products in six months is different in detail from research done as part of an academic graduate program. The focus and outcomes are different. Both are important for the well-being of the nation. The one produces skilled people and the other, short-term results of use to industry. Both extremes need to be supported--using separate kinds of arguments. If industry will not support developmental research, the Federal government should not confuse its efforts to encourage the development of well-qualified people with those designed to help industry do what it should do, but will not do. Economic pressures currently affect both kinds of research, but clear thinking is required to make effective use of extant resources.
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