French mathematician and philosopher Henri Poincaré‚
said, "Science is built of facts the way a house is built of bricks; but
an accumulation of facts is no more science than a pile of bricks is a
house." Without study, analysis and direction, all the information in the
world will amount to nothing, which is why research and development plays such
a vital role in our industry and the nation as a whole. According to the
National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), innovation and technological
advances led to a 60% increase in manufacturing activity between 1994-2004.
In December 2006, the 109th Congress passed the Tax
Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, which President Bush signed into law. The
Act includes an extension of the research and development tax credit, but only
through 2007. According to NAM,
almost 11,000 companies use the credit each year in industries ranging from
aerospace and biotechnology to electronics and energy. The R&D tax credit
is available for projects performed within the U.S., and manufacturers claimed
almost $3.8 billion in R&D tax credits in 2003.
"Manufacturers are the primary innovators in the United States, performing the bulk of private
sector R&D that is absolutely essential to the development of new products
and increased productivity," said John Engler, president of NAM. "The United States'
global leadership in innovation is clearly threatened by fierce competition
from the permanent and more generous R&D tax incentives offered by other
countries."
The U.S.
spent 2.6% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on R&D in 2003, while
countries such as Japan, Sweden, Finland
and Israel
each focused 3.1% or more of their GDP on R&D. In addition, foreign-based
R&D spending grew faster than domestic R&D spending in
2003.
1
The U.S.
still leads the world in overall R&D spending, however, and Department of
Energy's (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information's website offers
summaries of more than 750,000 federal R&D projects. Records can be
searched from several databases, including the Small Business Administration
Technology Resources Network, the
Environmental Protection Agency Science Inventory, the DOE R&D Project
Summaries Database, and the National
Science Foundation Awards Database. The site is located at
www.osti.gov/fedrnd
.
Having recognized the vital importance of sourcing
products for use in R&D projects,
CI is launching the
R&D Lab Equipment and Instrumentation Directory in
this issue. The quick-reference chart lists suppliers* of products ranging from
balances and blenders to surface area analyzers and viscometers. Display
advertisers in this issue are marked in blue within the chart, and contact information
is listed for each supplier, so you can quickly and easily request additional
information on whatever you need to help ensure the success of your R&D
projects.
Budgeting for R&D can be very difficult when the
future of the R&D tax credit is uncertain. It might be renewed for 2008,
but then again it might not, and it's hard to balance million-dollar decisions
on uncertainty. Manufacturers should contact their Congressional
representatives and request that the tax credit be given permanent status. The U.S. has been
the worldwide technology leader for generations, and we must take steps to
ensure that we don't fall behind.
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