Remarks of NASA Administrator

The Honorable Daniel S. Goldin

STEP Press Conference

June 30, 1999

Good morning. Thank you for being here. I am pleased to be here with you at today’s forum on U.S. industrial performance.

To start, I want to salute Rita Colwell for her tremendous leadership at the National Science Foundation (NSF). And I want to recognize the members of the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy who are here today. Thank you for your efforts in putting together the reports.

These reports present many of the best practices of 11 key industries and how they have worked over the past decade to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and enhance profitability.

Long-term research is an absolutely vital component of our nation’s continued prosperity. Yet many major companies have restructured or eliminated their once dynamic research operations.

The main reason for this shift is that the pace of business has increased exponentially in recent years. It’s no mistake that Bill Gates’ latest book is called Business at the Speed of Thought, because today’s companies must process information, react to competitors, and make decisions in shorter and shorter timeframes. However, companies that are forced to focus on the next milli-second might lose sight of the next millennium.

For a number of years, I worked on defense related projects, and we did an awful lot of long-term research during the Cold War. Our strong commitment to research and development—untold thousands of man-hours and billions of dollars—was one of the factors that led to our victory in the Cold War.

Just imagine the continued prosperity that would result if we regained that level of commitment to long-term research and development in this country.

No, the results of long-term research are not always successful and they are not always lucrative. But if we do not ask the tough questions and do our best to answer them, humanity will not advance.

Without long-term research, we will miss out on many incredible opportunities, and the short-term gains we have been so excited about recently won’t seem nearly as appealing if they are all we have to show in the next few decades.

America is better than that, and I can assure you NASA, the NSF and the National Academies are better than that too. That’s why we do our best to support long-term research as much as we can within our tight budgetary constraints.

However, in an era of shrinking federal budgets, industry cannot rely on public funding as primary support for research. One solution might be for the public and private sectors to partner together to dream and innovate and solve problems.

I can only speak for NASA here, but we want to strengthen our partnerships with industry. But we can only work with companies that have courage and vision, companies that are willing to share both the risks and the rewards.

As these reports indicate, economic vitality does not just happen. It is born of innovation, nurtured by a well-rounded program of research and development, and brought to maturity in an environment of long-term vision. A thriving research community focuses on the opportunities of tomorrow not the urgencies of today. As it does, the entire economy will continue to grow.

The quest for knowledge brings us much more than economic growth though. It is a vital component of our growth as a nation. A respected journalist recently reminded me of the words of Fermilab’s founder Robert Wilson. Although Wilson was speaking specifically about particle accelerators, I think he best sums up the value of research.

“It only has to do with the respect with which we regard one another, the dignity of the people, our love of culture. In that sense, this new knowledge has nothing to do directly with defending our country—except to make it worth defending.”

Our nation, and, indeed, our research community are worth defending. Working together, government and industry will do just that.

Thank you.