Funding the future: Setting our S and T priorities

Science and technology are often linked in the budget process. However, science and technology have different roles in the creation of a concept and the development of a useable product or discovery. The US government's funding priorities establish the pathway for future research and development which, in turn, will impact the course of our society and culture. Non-defense research and development funding in the current presidential budget request has decreased in the budgets of seven out of ten of the major agencies that fund science and technology. The budget request generally shows a bias toward medical research at the expense of supporting physical sciences. Even the National Institutes of Health budget, which has increased significantly over the last three years, demonstrates a bias in funding for a few diseases that have captured the public's attention at the expense of other critical research. Funding must be far-sighted and balanced to attract the future researchers and technicians that will invigorate scientific and technological advances. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.