Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics Basic Research for Tomorrow's Technology (1999) / Chapter Skim
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7 Changes in the R&D Landscape
7 Changes in the R&D Landscape
Pages 274-287
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From page 274... ...
Accompanying this understanding have been extraordinary technological developments, including the integrated circuit, optical fibers, solid-state lasers, and hightemperature superconductivity. Powerful forces have driven the development of condensed-matter and materials physics.
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From page 275... ...
forced industry to sharpen the focus of its R&D investments. Industrial R&D turned away from long-term physical sciences and toward projects with more immediate economic return, reducing fundamental research investments that have been essential to the development of new technologies.
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Source: National Science Board, Science and Engineering Indicators-1998, National Science Foundation (NSB98-1)
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physicists in the early l990s, in combination with a slow job market for physical scientists in fundamental research during this period. The only scientific discipline to increase undergraduate enrollments during the period was biology, which is consistent with the increasing federal investment in biomedical research.
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From page 278... ...
The corporate research laboratories emerged to exploit the promise of the physical sciences for the development of revolutionary new technologies and products. Condensed-matter and materials physics, invigorated by the new quantum mechanics, was on the verge of an intellectual explosion.
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From page 279... ...
Today, this special environment can best be emulated by government laboratories and universities working together with industry to create distributed, multidisciplinary networks in condensed-matter and materials physics. Within these networks, industry must continue to play a significant role in fundamental research in order to provide the vision needed to connect the research to technological applications.
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From page 280... ...
Setting aside this stewardship responsibility for national facilities, federal investments in condensed-matter and materials physics research have actually declined more than 10 percent since 1985. Although budget statistics are not available, head counts in physical research departments at major industrial laboratories in physics-related industries have declined by a factor of two during the same period, reducing further the nation's research effort in condensed-matter and materials physics.
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From page 281... ...
a: ~ 600 o 500 ~ 400 o a) O 300 3 - 200 100 o 1986 1988 1990 1992 Year 1994 1 996 ~ Major facilities operations supported by the DOE Division of Materials Sciences.
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From page 282... ...
Condensed-matter and materials physics is inherently interdisciplinary, with advances increasingly occurring at interfaces with chemistry, materials science, atomic and molecular physics, engineering, biology, and other disciplines (see Box 7.2~. Major professional societies, including the Materials Research Society and the Divisions of Materials Physics and High Polymer Physics of the American Physical Society, have positioned themselves to foster and serve this interdisciplinary materials community.
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From page 283... ...
Universities can meet the interdisciplinary challenge through joint appointments for faculty, by encouraging multidisciplinary centers, and by recognizing the value of interdisciplinary research in tenure decisions. Government laboratories, which have an easier time putting together multidisciplinary teams, should be encouraged to involve universities in those teams.
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From page 284... ...
Industrial laboratories were downsized and redirected. Government laboratories struggled with substantial reductions in resources, increased regulation, and mission and operational reform.
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From page 285... ...
This requirement is a substantial challenge for agencies involved in fundamental research, for which the outputs TABLE 7.3 Inputs, Outputs, and Outcomes of R&D Performance Indicators Category Concepts Proxies Correlates Inputs Person-years Expenditures Equipment-years Outputs Ideas, discoveries Papers, prizes Inventions Patents, invention disclosures Human capital Degrees awarded Technology transfer CRADAs, licenses Cost-shared dollars Outcomes or Broad advance of Papers, citations, Impacts human knowledge expert evaluations New products Patents, citations Licenses, license royalties, product announcements, new product sales Productivity Measured productivity improvements growth Income growth Benefit/cost ratio or New firms, induced rate of return investment Excitement about Science News articles science Health, environment, New drug applications Emissions levels etc. Cooperation and CRADAs knowledge flow SOURCE: Adam B
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From page 286... ...
, are difficult to quantify or relate to specific programs. Consequently, proxy indicators related to the desired outputs or outcomes are developed for research activities.
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From page 287... ...
performance measurement approach for fundamental research under GPRA. This discussion of performance measures raises a key issue: the rate of economic return on R&D investments.
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