Barack Obama on Monday promised to double public funding of scientific research to exceed the level Washington spent during the "space race" unleashed by Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy 50 years ago.
The US president's pledge, made in a speech at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, included a promise to take ideology out of public research following what many scientists saw as the politicisation of science under George W. Bush - particularly in the field of climate change.
Under Mr Obama's pledge, the US would increase to 3 per cent the proportion of gross domestic product it spends on scientific research and development - roughly the same level as under JFK.
New measures would include making an R&D tax credit permanent for businesses, boosting funding for energy and healthcare research, and efforts to restore the quality of US teaching in maths and sciences. "We have watched as scientific integrity has been undermined and scientific research politicised in an effort to advance predetermined ideological agenda," said Mr Obama. "Other countries are beginning to pull ahead in the pursuit of this generation's great discoveries...We know that our country is better than this."
Mr Obama's speech goes part of the way towards fulfilling a long-standing campaign promise and comes on the eve of the 100-day mark of his presidency.
Some critics of the Obama administration point out that elements of his programme, including the pledge to enact a full "cap and trade" system this year for carbon emissions, already look to be in danger because of the political fallout in Congress from the economic crisis.
However, Mr Obama also won plaudits for sticking to his longer-term agenda.
"It would be very easy in these circumstances to allow your agenda to be captured by real-time crises and simply to become a prisoner of the news cycle," says David Rothkopf, a former national security official in the Clinton administration. "What is encouraging is that Obama is focusing on where America will be in terms of competitiveness and innovation after the economic crisis has receded when we will be entering a different world."
Mr Obama on Monday argued there was a strong link between previous eras of high public funding for scientific research and subsequent US economic competitiveness. He also linked his new research funding to US job creation.
And he argued that the steep slide in the quality of teaching at US schools was in need of urgent reversal.
According to one study that Mr Obama cited, 15-year-olds ranked 25th in mathematics and 21st in science by international comparisons. A second study found 20 per cent of US students studying maths and 60 per cent of those studying chemistry and physics were taught by teachers with no expertise in these subjects.
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2009
