The presumptive Democratic nominee for US president, Hillary Clinton, has introduced the first substantive discussion of science and technology policy issues into the election by releasing a technology and innovation plan on 28 June. The plan includes a proposal to grow the research budgets of key science agencies like the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Clinton notes that US federal funding for research and development (R&D) as a share of the country’s GDP is lower than before the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957. She says increasing funding for these research agencies is key to ensuring that America continues to lead the world in areas like green energy and high performance computing. Clinton also vows to make technology transfer easier and more efficient as president, and she supports setting aside a small portion of federal research budgets for commercialisation capacity building and accelerator grants.
