By Mark Westneat

The least discussed feature of the $800 billion economic stimulus plan currently being debated by our leaders in Washington is support for scientific research and scientific infrastructure. The House bill designated a significant amount of funding for the National Science Foundation and other agencies, but the Senate version of the bill may decrease or eliminate science funding. If so, it would be a tragic error, because funding for science is one of the surest ways of stimulating the kind of knowledge-based and information rich economy that the United States needs in order to retain our competitive position in the future.

The House version of the stimulus bill contained over $50B for science, distributed to Energy, National Institutes of Health, NASA, NOAA and a boost of $3B for the National Science Foundation. But a recent version of the Senate legislation cut that substantially; funding for the National Science Foundation was cut by more than half, to just $1.4B. This week we understand that the NSF boost may be deleted completely, along with other major cuts to Science and Education This is a critical mistake that should be remedied before the bill goes to President Obama because scientific research is one of the best economic stimulus provisions in the entire plan — a fact that is surprising to many people who are not familiar with how federal research grants are spent.

There are several key reasons why scientific research is an important stimulus. First, academic institutions (colleges, universities and museums) are shovel-ready for infrastructure funding. In some cases so shovel-ready that they are starting to fall apart. They have the administrative and academic teams ready to quickly put stimulus dollars towards much-needed and cutting-edge research facilities that can perform NSF sponsored projects in biology, computation, education, engineering, genetics and medicine. They are also ready to hire construction firms and personnel to create better institutions for training of the next generation of scientists.

Second, America’s academic institutions are electron-ready, a computational complement to shovel-readiness that is going largely unspoken in the current debate. Rapid access to information is the defining revolution of our times, and the information age is being driven in large part by scientific research in such areas as genetics, high-powered computing, and climate and biodiversity research that is supported by NSF and is so critical to our future. Stimulus funds to an electron-ready research community will be well spent in providing jobs and purchasing equipment in information technology and other high-tech fields.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, scientific research is basically all about hiring people and buying stuff. NSF grants are not funding elite Ivory Tower endeavors — the money helps everyone. The primary line item in most research grants is salary for students, technicians, interns, post-doctoral scientists, and researchers. These are mostly young people who contribute fresh approaches and new ideas to the research while receiving training in science and technology. While these are not blue collar jobs, all institutions charge an overhead fee on federal grants that is used to fund operational costs, including administrative assistants, plumbers, electricians, and house-keeping staff to keep the research enterprise running. The remaining money is used to buy things, from high-end items such as computers, microscopes, DNA sequencers, and chemicals, to every-day items like office supplies and airline tickets. Most of these things are purchased from American companies and, in the case of my own institution, preferentially from local minority and woman-owned businesses. In addition, scientific institutions provide a significant portion of developmental aid at low cost, by training thousands of students and colleagues each year in developing countries.

The scientific community is all set up and ready to respond in creative, diverse and societally important ways to stimulate the economy. It’s unfortunate that this critically important funding for science is being cut like some of the well publicized pork items, and that science cuts are not being discussed. Please ask your representatives in Washington about this unique way to stimulate the economy now. By supporting a strong stimulus budget in this area, we can help improve the economy this year and maintain scientific excellence in the United States for many years to come.

Mark Westneat is Curator of Zoology and Robert A. Pritzker Director of the Biodiversity Synthesis Center at the Field Museum of Natural History. His research focuses on marine biodiversity, biomechanics, and development of web resources in biodiversity such as the Encyclopedia of Life.