The State and Science in the Trump Era: Preliminary Results
The global trends of recent decades show new challenges to the position of the United States as a leader in the field of science and innovation. The response measures taken by the Trump administration and Congress are aimed at the further development of the U.S. science and technology capabilities with a focus on modern "breakthrough" technologies (artificial intelligence, quantum information science, biotechnology, 5G telecommunications networks, space exploration) as well as on expanding public-private partnership. While the White House continues to insist on cutting federal spending on nondefense R&D to spur defense developments, Congress is making decisions based primarily on research agencies’ budget requests, taking into account new initiatives and program changes. American science is increasingly facing competition from other national priorities for limited budgetary resources. This makes it difficult to find the optimal balance between different directions of R&D and research programs and imposes certain restrictions on the development of science.