[IP] Computing Researcher Association Applaud President's Innovation Plans
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Computing Researchers Applaud President's Innovation Plans
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 20:26:31 -0500
From: Peter Harsha <harsha@xxxxxxx>
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Hi Dave,
For IP, if you'd like. This is CRA's reaction to the State of the Union.
Thanks!
-Peter
**Press Release**
Contact: Peter Harsha
e: harsha@xxxxxxx <mailto:harsha@xxxxxxx>
c: 202-256-8271
January 31, 2006
COMPUTING RESEARCHERS APPLAUD PRESIDENT'S INNOVATION PLANS
WASHINGTON, DC - The Computing Research Association commends President
Bush for announcing in his State of the Union address a new focus on
U.S. competitiveness and innovation in a plan that would include healthy
increases for U.S. science agencies.
The President's plan, called America's Competitiveness Initiative, would
double the federal investment in research sponsored by the National
Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology
and the Department of Energy's Office of Science over then next ten
years, reversing a trend that has deemphasized fundamental research,
which is typically performed in U.S. universities and long-acknowledged
as the fuel for American innovation. The plan would also bolster math
and science education, make permanent the research and experimentation
tax credit, provide worker training opportunities, and reform
immigration policies to ensure the U.S. can continue to attract and
retain the world's best and brightest.
"The President's proposal is an important step in ensuring the U.S. will
have the resources -- the people, the ideas, the infrastructure -- the
country needs to continue to lead in an increasingly competitive world,"
said Professor Daniel A. Reed, Chair of the Computing Research
Association and Director of the Renaissance Computing Institute at the
University of North Carolina.
In the last decade, innovations spawned by fundamental research,
particularly research in information technology, have driven U.S.
productivity increases and fired the new economy. "But the increasing
trend toward short--term efforts puts this innovation cycle at risk at
exactly the time when our global competitors are expanding and
accelerating their own efforts," Reed said. "I am very pleased the
President is committed to doubling the investment in long--term research
to reverse the trend."
Computing researchers have grown increasingly concerned that while
information technology remains central to the nation's economy, national
security, health and the conduct of the sciences, the federal investment
in fundamental IT research has been stagnant since 2001, and in fact,
declined 4.5 percent in the President's most recent budget submission.
"That's why it's crucial that any reinvestment in fundamental research
include a revitalization of the federal Networking and Information
Technology R&D program," said Edward Lazowska, Bill & Melinda Gates
Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington
and former co-Chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory
Committee. "While the payoffs of past research have been dramatic, the
field remains in relative infancy. Tremendous opportunities remain --
far more can happen in the next ten years than has happened in the last
thirty, and it is crucial that America lead the way."
CRA is also supportive of the effort to increase the participation of
American students in science and math education, as called for in the
President's plan and featured in bipartisan proposals in Congress. As
part of that effort, computing researchers urge policymakers to focus
particular attention on reaching out to members of underrepresented groups.
"The pace of innovation is constrained when significant portions of the
population aren't represented in the research and development process,"
said John King, Dean of the School of Information at the University of
Michigan. "Building a diverse workforce not only encourages a diversity
of ideas that breed real innovation, but it may be the only way to meet
the Nation's workforce needs in the face of the projected growth in the
field."
"The President's innovation agenda creates an important opportunity,"
Reed said. "We're optimistic that these good ideas are shared by a large
and growing number of Members of Congress on a bipartisan basis and look
forward to working with policymakers to see them implemented in the
coming year. Our nation's future depends critically on increased
investments in advanced education and research in information technology
and other fields."
CRA is an organization of 200 of the Nation's leading industrial
computing research labs and university computer science departments. For
more information, visit the CRA website at: http://www.cra.org
<http://www.cra.org/>
--
Peter Harsha
Director of Government Affairs
Computing Research Association
1100 17th St. NW, Suite 507
Washington, DC 20036
p: 202.234.2111 ext 106
c: 202.256.8271
CRA's Computing Research Policy Blog: http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog
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