Upon opening the second annual “The State of the Science” address for the National Academy of Sciences, or NAS, on June 3, President Marcia McNutt, Ph.D., referenced her first address1, which revealed that the United States had started to fall behind as a world science leader while China advanced faster and more proficiently, especially in research and development. Progress has not been significant in the past year, she said.
The NAS was established in 1863 by presidential order to serve as a private, nongovernmental institution that would recognize and promote outstanding American scientific research and accomplishments, foster a broad understanding of science among the public, and serve as a trusted source of advice to the government. Its State of the Science address was established last year to provide policymakers and the public with a clear idea of where the U.S. stands in its effort to remain a leader in scientific research and innovations.
Research share across a range of technologies
This year, policies announced by the Trump administration — including significant budget cuts to research organizations, research grants, and international student visas — have changed the status of the U.S. quickly and dramatically, Dr. McNutt said. The administration has proposed a 40% budget cut to the National Institutes of Health, between 10% and 40% cuts to Earth and space organizations, and a more than 50% cut to the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program, among other measures.2
The country has actually not been on a sustainable path to global research leadership for a number of years, Dr. McNutt said. “We are embarking on a radical new experiment in what conditions promote science leadership, with the U.S. being the treatment group and China … the control.”
How we got here
To put the United States’ current dilemma into perspective, Dr. McNutt referenced a 2007 NAS report titled “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,”3 which provided two possible scenarios for how the country would fare in terms of leading the global science establishment. From then until now, she said, the U.S. has been following the “business-as-usual” scenario, in which it slowly lost ground to China and other nations by no longer dominating in research and development investment and numbers of researchers and publications. “All of the predictions from the business-as-usual scenario played out, and yet we did very little as a nation post-2007 to change the trajectory and blaze a new, more productive path that would allow us to get out ahead again,” she said.
“All of the predictions from the business-as-usual scenario played out, and yet we did very little as a nation post-2007 to change the trajectory and blaze a new, more productive path that would allow us to get out ahead again.”
– Marcia McNutt, Ph.D.
Recent developments have placed the U.S. on the precipice of the “pessimistic scenario,” which involves a loss of talent and investment to international interests, a loss in prominence in global markets, and an overall drop in the U.S. standard of living. These outcomes are being triggered by the following actions:
- Budget cuts made to address other national priorities, including tax breaks.
- An exodus of U.S. researchers leaving to pursue attractive career opportunities abroad.
- A lack of business incentives, leading to less industry R&D investment.
- An increase in the regulatory burdens that reduce research output.
According to Dr. McNutt, these triggers are present in the U.S. right now, and the best science is no longer happening stateside. In fact, a study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra, Australia,4 reveals that China currently leads in all critical, high-risk research areas, from artificial intelligence, energy, and quantum computing to biotech, sensing, and defense.
Reasons for optimism
While these findings may appear dire, Dr. McNutt also noted that the U.S. has strengths it can turn into opportunities, including a culture of innovation, a still-strong industrial R&D base, and the capital to turn good ideas into new products and solutions. The key, she said, is for industry, academia, and public entities to work together to:
- Build on the country’s intrinsic culture of innovation by examining how proposal reviews are handled to ensure that truly innovative ideas are selected and given a chance to succeed.
- Create a national research strategy that brings together all government, industry, and philanthropic funders in a collaborative effort to benefit basic and applied research.
- Improve precollege education to ensure that students can not only find jobs, but are also scientifically literate and can apply scientific thinking and processes to everyday challenges.
- Build the domestic STEM workforce by rethinking STEM paths to industry and improving basic research efforts to “right size” labs.
- Reduce red tape, including the amount of paperwork required of researchers; more than 40% of researchers’ time is spent completing administrative tasks.
- Lean into international partnerships and resources to guarantee that research can be completed even in the face of major U.S. budget cuts to areas such as ocean, space, and polar exploration.
- Rebuild the public’s trust in science, which decreased during the pandemic, by listening to everyday citizens and addressing the issues they experience today.
“We need to do what America has always done and done very well: We have to innovate to the next version of endless frontier,” Dr. McNutt concluded before turning the presentation over to Kelvin Droegemeier, Ph.D., to moderate a panel discussion further delving into the topics covered during her talk. Dr. Droegemeier is a professor of atmospheric science and a special advisor to the chancellor for science and policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Insights from the field
Four experts joined Dr. Droegemeier to share their insights about the challenges faced by scientists and researchers and the opportunities that lie ahead: Heather Wilson, Ph.D., president of The University of Texas at El Paso; Lynne E. Parker, Ph.D., principal deputy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Tsu-Jae King Liu, Ph.D., emerita dean of the University of California, Berkeley College of Engineering and recently appointed president of the National Academy of Engineering; and Michael M. Crow, Ph.D., president of Arizona State University, who joined the panel virtually.
Reflecting on the information provided by Dr. McNutt, Dr. Liu, whose research focuses on semiconductor devices and technology, reiterated the need for collaboration across the board. She said the federal government should support and fund scientific research, the scientific community should collaborate with industry, the U.S. should tap into international partnerships, and academic institutions should share best practices to ensure all students are prepared for new jobs in the future.
“We have tremendous talent in this country, but we need to give them the opportunity to pursue science and engineering.”
– Heather Wilson, Ph.D.
This level of cooperation would lead to the U.S. regaining and retaining its scientific leadership position, which should be the ultimate goal, she said. “If we don’t maintain technological leadership, our democracy is ultimately at risk. It’s existential.
“I call it the new space race. Any country that’s dominating in space between Earth and the moon is going to essentially dominate the world,” Dr. Liu said.
Dr. Wilson, who served as the secretary of the Air Force from 2017 to 2019, said national security is a sometimes-overlooked element of the scientific establishment. She explained, “While we’re interested in science and engineering for its impact on the economy, and on our health and infrastructure, it is vital to the security of the nation. We are behind in 37 of 44 critical technology areas. That should concern all of us.”
One way to bring the U.S. back to prominence is to tap existing resources — namely students. That begins with precollege education and encouraging teachers to make science and math come alive for young students.
“Enthusiasm for a subject is caught, it’s not taught,” she said. “We still need to be the magnet for the best and the brightest from all around the world, but we’re not connecting to and inspiring the next generation of Americans. We have tremendous talent in this country, but we need to give them the opportunity to pursue science and engineering. We need them desperately, and we need to widen that pathway.”
“Scientists and academia lost touch with the people. We have to find a way to reconnect. And we need to think about how we communicate better, to explain the role of the invisible hand of science.”
– Michael M. Crow, Ph.D.
Dr. Crow, who has worked to implement extensive changes at Arizona State University to build a culture of innovation, argued that now is the time to open those pathways. He suggested examining and updating the overall academic culture in the United States, which is more rigid than most areas of the world that are part of a cultural evolution. He said, “We need more speed, we need more agility, we need better communication, we need different ways to think about risk-taking, and we need different ways to think about setting goals.”
It is also crucial to make sure that every project that scientists undertake is working toward a very specific goal, one that the general public can understand, he said. “Scientists and academia lost touch with the people,” Dr. Crow said. “We have to find a way to reconnect. And we need to think about how we communicate better, to explain the role of the invisible hand of science.” (For more on how to become a better science and engineering communicator, read the feature article “Be an Attention-Grabber” in the Summer 2025 issue of SWE Magazine.)
When asked what she would do if she had a magic wand, Dr. Parker, an experienced AI researcher, replied that she would solve the “valley of death” for research. “Most people outside our [science and research] community in the United States probably do not realize the impact that science has on their lives,” she said. “We have to figure out how to get … great ideas, great innovations out of the lab and into practice so that we can all benefit from them.” By leading the charge, the U.S. has a chance to ensure that technology is used worldwide in a way that is consistent with American values and democracy, she said.
Dr. Parker said she sees metrics in which the U.S. still leads, including in AI research, models, design, and applications. “Yes, there is competition,” she continued. “But the world desires the technology that the United States has built in this space. The United States is still a world leader in so many areas.”
As Dr. Liu stated, “In America, we have hope. We’re optimistic. We can innovate and make the world a better place. And I still think it’s worth fighting for.”
References
- “National Academy of Sciences Highlights the State of Science in the United States.” SWE Magazine, Conference 2024.
- “NSF Cuts to Fellowship Funding Devastate Research Community.” SWE Magazine, Summer 2025.
- Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future. National Academies of Science, 2007.
- “ASPI’s Two-Decade Critical Technology Tracker: The Rewards of Long-Term Research Investment.” Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Aug. 28, 2024.
