R&D Magazine has joined Science Debate 2008 (www.sciencedebate2008.com) in its call for a presidential debate on science and innovation issues. We join a very prestigious group of more than 10,000 scientists and engineers in this request that includes Nobel Laureates, academicians, and leaders in government, business, and S&T publishing. With a slowing economy, diversions of government funding to fight a war on terrorism, and increasing economic development in Asia, the U.S. needs to have strong leadership and a strong S&T policy in the years ahead to maintain the leadership that we currently enjoy.

Understanding the knowledge, experience, and policies of the presidential candidates in S&T will serve to educate the electorate, while at the same time informing the candidates themselves of the vital importance of S&T to our country’s and the world’s future. S&T continues to change at an ever-increasing rate, and the geographic distribution of R&D funding continues to approach parity levels between North America, Europe, and Asia. And while the current distribution of scientific and technological innovation still strongly favors the U.S., the increasing trend toward parity can negatively affect the ability of domestic industrial, government, and academic organizations to support their research operations at their current levels. Staffing is already becoming an issue as immigrant researchers are starting to return to their home countries. Outsourcing of research is another growing issue that threatens the U.S.’s ability to respond quickly to changing technologies as companies lose their core technological strengths.

Global issues, such as global warming, healthcare in developing countries, the safety of nanotechnology, national security, energy, and food supplies all will have solutions that are founded in the future in science and technology. If we lose our dominance in these areas, we’re also likely to lose ground in our standard of living and future economic growth.

We urge you to also become involved in this effort and make your questions known to candidates. Science Debate 2008 is an excellent and very easy-to-use forum for making this happen.

tim.studt@advantagemedia.com