Science at a Crossroads 1

Science is entering an alliance with the economy that will speed the effect of innovation through society. Despite the slowdown of the 'new economy', a cascade paradigm of innovation appears key to increasing the rate of economic growth. Yet for science to continue to thrive and make this contribution to innovation, it must traverse at least three key crossroads. First, while life sciences have built a strong advocacy model to secure growing federal research funding, the physical sciences (including mathematics and engineering) have not and must now do so to thrive. Second, the drop in the numbers of physical scientists and engineers must be reversed if we are to have the talent to maintain a strong trend of scientific advance. Third, although science advances are increasingly interdisciplinary and occurring in the space between the historic science stovepipes, the organization of federal science support is largely unchanged since the beginning of the cold war. While a decentralized model has value, we must also consider new approaches that encourage deeper cooperation across science sectors and agencies.