Government Finds U.S. Slipping In Tech DominanceGovernment Finds U.S. Slipping In Tech Dominance

American dominance in science and engineering continues to decline, a prestigious government advisory board said in a biennial report card on U.S. science, engineering, and technology released at a White House event on Friday.

The National Science Board's Science and Engineering Indicators report found that the decline of American dominance comes largely at the hands of rapidly developing science and technology capabilities in Asia, especially driven by the rise of China as a world power.

"Science and technology are no longer the province of developed nations," the report says. "They have, in a sense, become 'democratized.' Governments of many countries have firmly built S&T aspects into their development policies as they vie to make their economies more knowledge- and technology-intensive and ensure their competitiveness in a globalizing world."

The report notes that while research and development spending as a percentage of the gross domestic product has remained relatively steady in the United States in recent years, Asian spending has seen a significant uptick during the last decade in terms of both percentage of GDP and real spending.

For example, while annual absolute spending growth in the United States over the last decade has averaged about 5 to 6%, growth in Asia in general has been more like 9 to 10%, reaching 20% in China. These increases come both from increased government attention to science and technology in Asia as well as increased overseas research and development spending by multinational corporations, according to the report.

American dominance in research output also continues to slip. The combined share of published articles in scholarly journals by Americans and Europeans declined from 69% in 1995 to 59% in 2008, and citations to U.S. articles dropped by 9% between 1992 and 2007.

The National Science Board is a group of 25 Presidential appointees that advises the President, Congress and the National Science Foundation on issues related to science, engineering and technology research, education and development. Members include prominent academics in science, engineering and technology.

Meanwhile, the report found, the developing world continues to close the gap on the United States on science, technology, engineering and math education. For example, despite having less than two thirds the population of the United States, Japan and South Korea combined saw the same number of university graduates in science and engineering in 2006 as did the United States.

In terms of business, U.S. companies continue to lead the way in high-technology manufacturing and services, providing about 30% of the global output in these fields in 2007. However, the data found a growing concentration of manufacturing in Asia, especially in computers. This is especially the case in China, which has seen its share of worldwide high-tech exports increase from 6% in 1995 to 20% in 2008.

John Holdren, director of the White House's office of science and technology policy, said that he would use the report's findings as a foundation for policy-making. Holdren's office develops science, technology and engineering policy and budget guidance for government research and development.

Already, the Obama administration has taken action in response to some of the data included in the report. For example, on the heels of findings that American 15-year-olds are losing ground in science and math education, the President recently announced a new campaign, Educate to Innovate, that will invest more than $250 million in public and private money to attract and retain good science, technology, engineering and math teachers.