The AAAS Board of Directors, in accordance with Association policy, has approved publication of this report as a contribution to the understanding of an important process. The interpretations and conclusions are those of the authors and do not purport to represent the views of the Board or the Council of the Association.

This project is funded by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Carnegie Corporation and Burroughs Wellcome are not responsible for any statements or views expressed in this report.

After nearly 50 years of steadily increasing budgets, the U.S. research community is facing the prospect of significantly reduced federal funding. Efforts to balance the budget and reduce the size of the federal government have created great uncertainty about the future of federal funding for science and technology. Although science and technology funding fared relatively well in FY 1996, outyear projections by both the President and Congress indicate it will decrease significantly as discretionary spending falls over the next several years. At the same time, the congressional agenda is increasingly dominated by issues involving science and technology and polls continue to show strong support for R&D among the American people.

In January 1996, the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Center for Science, Technology, and Congress, undertook to produce a series of reports to provide information on the state and regional impacts of federal R&D spending and to organize a series of meetings associated with these reports. This report on science and technology in Alaska was prepared for presentation at the Arctic Science Conference in Girdwood, Alaska in September 1996. Our goal is to help the research community, both industrial and academic, state and federal lawmakers, and local opinion leaders better understand the effects of current trends in public and private sector R&D spending in key regions of the U.S. We also want to provide oft-requested information to Congress and the public about the role of science and technology, including federal, state, and industrial R&D, in the economies of various states.

In gathering information for The Future of Science and Technology in Alaska: Trends and Indicators, we used the most recent data available from the National Science Foundation. Because of the complexity of collecting information on a state-by-state basis, especially with regard to industry spending, the most recent NSF data details obligations from fiscal year 1994 and expenditures during the 1993 calendar year. The numbers may change as data for more recent years becomes available. We have augmented the NSF data with additional research and with projections of future government spending based on outyear funding data from the President's budget request and the congressional budget resolution. The report provides a statistical portrait of Alaska's R&D activity; examines the distribution of federal R&D funding in the state; discusses university-based research and state R&D and technology development initiatives; and assesses the potential future impacts of trends in federal, state, and private sector R&D spending.

We would like to thank Kei Koizumi for his efforts in assembling the data, Rebecca Feldman for drafting this report, and Steve Nelson for reviewing the report.

 

Albert H. Teich Director AAAS Science and Policy Programs

Bonnie Bisol Cassidy Assistant Director AAAS Center for Science, Technology, and Congress