As you all know, this last week POTUS spoke at our beloved National Academy of Sciences. I became curious to the approximate absolute dollar value corresponding to his 3% funding pledge, and what our current funding level is as a % of GDP. According to New Scientist, current US funding (government + industry) for research & development (god knows what kind of funding this includes outside of basic research … applied, translational, what the heck is “development” really?) is 2.6% of GDP. According to our also much beloved AAAS, our funding level is ~2.6% between 1999-2006. So let us say this value is approximately correct. In addition, New Scientist reports that an increase to 3% will require an extra $70 billion. That leaves us with ~$525 billion in total funding for US research as this administration’s admirable goal. According to wikipedia, our 2008 GDP as calculated by the IMF is $14,264,600 (millions of USD). So that’s a total funding level of ~$428 billion. So, for the near future assuming GDP holds steady, it looks like approximately half-a-trillion $$$ for research.
