R&D funding

Some of the complexities of analyzing and interpreting the impact and significance of shifting patterns in the funding of research in this country were addressed last week in testimony before the Research & Development Subcommittee of the House Committee on Armed Services. In a well-documented presentation, Donald N. Langenberg, president-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, quantified and thereby sharpened the focus on a number of previously identified issues of concern to the science community. One was the impact of the growing commitment to R&D by Japan and other world powers. Another was the lag in the funding of basic research by the Department of Defense—a lag that has persisted despite an enormous increase in the funding of total weapons-related R&D during the 1980s. Langenberg is a physicist by trade. He served as deputy director for the National Science Foundation under the Carter Administration. He is currently chancellor of the University of ...