I’m currently in Washington, DC for the pilot AAAS-CASE (Catalyzing Advocacy and Science in Engineering) workshop. I wanted to share a great short video that was sent to the attendees before the workshop.
http://www.innovationdeficit.org/
The video describes the “innovation deficit”, the gap between the federal investment in science and engineering, and what is needed to sustain new advances in energy, medicine, agriculture, technology and in our fundamental understanding of the world around us. The problem isn’t difficult to understand, the entire NSF research budget is something like $7 billion (roughly 35 F-35 join strike fighters at the going rate – every single one of which flies or fails based on past federal expenditures on both basic and applied research).
How do we address the innovation deficit? By building stronger connections between scientists and policy makers – two groups naturally ill at ease with one another. The idea behind AAAS-CASE is to start a conversation among junior scientists about how they can guide better policy, and to equip them with the tools to engage with policy makers. We’ll see how it goes…
