Several trends cast doubt on our continuing commitment to the above strategy. The first accompanied the end of the Cold War, when reductions in military funding had the perhaps unintentional effect of cutting basic and applied DOD research budgets. The portion of funding DOD devoted to basic research (the “6.1 account”) declined from 3.3% in fiscal year (FY) 1994 to about 1.9% in FY 2005⁴⁸ (Figure 3-12). Military research funding has gradually shifted from basic and applied research toward the more immediate needs of the combat forces.

Public funding for science and engineering rose through the 1990s, but virtually all of the increase went to biomedical research at NIH. Federal spending on the physical sciences remained roughly flat, and increases for mathematics and engineering only slightly surpassed inflation (Figure 3-13). Funding for important areas of the life sciences—plant science, ecology, environmental research—supported by agencies other than NIH also has leveled off. The lack of new funding for research in the physical sci-