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Can the US maintain its dominance in IT?

Dave Patterson CNET News

Published: 12 May 2005 17:35 BST

A hearing this week in Washington will determine whether the United States will lead critical IT innovation in the 21st century.

The hearing, to be conducted Thursday by the House Science Committee, will focus on the state of research funding for information technology. Such funding, and the innovation it spurs, is vital to the US economy and national defence.

Some historical perspective illuminates what's at stake. In 1957, the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union sent a wake-up call to the US In response, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was created and charged with preventing such technological surprises in the future. DARPA funded high-risk, high-reward research and sought to engage the best minds.

Since then, innovation in US IT has grown substantially under government-funded research and has been critical to this nation's leadership in technology. DARPA, together with the National Science Foundation, funds most academic IT research in this country. In addition to swatting home runs such as the Internet, the majority of IT companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq, and the most technically advanced military in the world, IT research has become a key economic driver. In the last decade alone, IT was responsible for 9 percent of the United States' gross national product. In 2001, a National Academies of Science and Engineering report gave 19 examples of IT research leading to industries worth a billion dollars or more. Federally funded academic research played a major role in every case.

Over the last 10 years, however, there's been a major shift in funding priorities and policy at DARPA and the National Science Foundation. The current DARPA policy, which mandates 12-month "go/no go" research milestones for IT, has shortened deadlines, thus discouraging long-term research. In addition, programmes formerly open to academics are now classified; other programmes have citizenship restrictions. In three years, DARPA halved academic IT research to $123m in fiscal year 2004. DARPA today is no longer engaging all the best talent in long-term research, which has been so vital to America's prowess in defence and essential to a robust economy.

The effects of this significant funding shift are far-reaching and long-lasting. In the last five years, IT proposals to the National Science Foundation jumped from 2,000 to 6,500, forcing the agency to leave many worthy proposals unfunded. Sadly, other agencies are not stepping in to take up the challenge. The Department of Homeland Security, which some hoped would augment the Science Foundation and DARPA, spends just a few million dollars per year for IT research. NASA also is downsizing its IT effort; in March it encouraged all but 70 of its 1,400 employees at its Silicon Valley centre to retire.