China Narrows Technology Gap With US
January 17, 2010 9:22 AM
America remains the world’s science and technology leader by minting a record number of patents (OTC:NPDV) and having "prolific inventors" in Silicon Valley and university and company labs, but China is gaining ground, the National Science Board said.
"The report is not just about where we stand, it’s about where we are headed," National Science Foundation director Arden Bement said at the White House while rolling out the report.
"At 1.47 million, the number of researchers in the United States is still the highest of all the regions surveyed, but the overall growth from 1995 to 2008 was 3%. The growth in number of researchers in China over the same period was 8.7%, with 1.42 million today, and no signs of slowing," said Rolf Lehming, director of NSF's Science & Engineering Indicators (S&EI) Program.
"The time that we had a monopoly on talent, if there ever was such a time, is behind us," Lehming added.
The U.S. accounted for nearly a third of $1.1 trillion spent on research and development globally in 2007, minted more science and engineering doctorates than any other country, and led the world in innovative activity. Efforts by China and other developing Asian countries to boost their science and engineering capabilities are bearing fruit, however, and the gap between them and the U.S., though still wide, is narrowing.
"The data begin to tell a worrisome story," said Kei Koizumi, assistant director for federal research and development (R&D) in the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Calling SEI 2010 a "State of the Union on science, technology, engineering and mathematics," he noted that "U.S. dominance has eroded significantly."
In terms of R&D expenditures as a share of economic output, while Japan has surpassed the U.S. for quite some time, South Korea is now in the lead--ahead of the U.S. and Japan. And why does this matter?
Investment in R&D is a major driver of innovation, which builds on new knowledge and technologies, contributes to national competitiveness and furthers social welfare. R&D expenditures indicate the priority given to advancing science and technology (S&T) relative to other national goals.
