US scientists have done a “very poor job” communicating the social and economic benefits of publicly funded research, the former director of America’s National Science Foundation (NSF) has argued.
Speaking at?探花视频’s World Academic Summit at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, Sethuraman Panchanathan said he was disappointed by the “fundamental disconnect” between the research community and the US public over the everyday benefits of research funding.
“If I take my iPhone there are at least 50,000 NSF projects who have contributed to it – including the glass on the phone,” explained Panchanathan, a machine learning expert who led the $9 billion (?7 billion) funding agency for five years until April 2025,?when he said?it was “time to pass the baton to new leadership”.
The NSF is one of several US funding agencies targeted by Donald Trump, whose administration has proposed a $5 billion funding cut to the basic research agency for the next fiscal year. No budget has yet been approved, with the House of Representatives arguing for a smaller funding cut of about $2 billion.
While not addressing the cuts directly, Panchanathan told?THE’s summit that the agency and US science in general had “not done a good job in establishing the tyre tracks” of research in terms of the high-growth companies or products supported by its outcomes.
“People will say ‘you are a $9 billion (?7 billion) agency, why do you need more money?’. We have to communicate the impact and say what this investment does and can do,” he said at the event on 7 October.
“Take Google, for instance, the NSF was one of the earliest investors in Google,” explained the India-born scientist on the technology giant now worth $3 trillion and which employs about 180,000 people globally.
“Our storytelling should be better as a funding agency,” he said, arguing that US science as a whole had “done a very poor job of communicating and engaging”.
The failure to convey the importance of publicly funded research was even more disappointing given the willingness of elected politicians to speak out in favour of increased research funding.
“I spent a lot of time travelling with senators – it’s one thing having those conversations in Washington but it’s another when you’re out with them and they’re seeing what research can do and how it can?help their areas. They are saying ‘we want to help support and scale this’,” he said.
“There is an underlying position, a desire to invest to achieve these outcomes. It might not be in a statement but we need to make a better job in showing how research is making a difference – not just in outcomes but for cities and regions,” he said, noting how research initiatives in Arizona had been crucial for bringing high-quality jobs to the state.
US industry was, however, prepared to invest in basic science despite dwindling political support, he said.
“We received $1 billion not from government but from investors who still see the huge importance of this work.”
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