NSF: U.S. losing ground as more R&D jobs head overseas

[FarCenter]

WASHINGTON – Asian rivals are quickly closing the gap with the U.S. in supporting science and engineering investment as U.S. high-tech companies shift more of their R&D overseas, a new report warns.

The survey of global competitiveness in science and engineering R&D released by the National Science Foundation this week found that China alone boosted R&D spending by a “stunning” 28 percent between 2008 and 2009, moving it past Japan into second place in terms of R&D investment behind the U.S. By contrast, NSF found that U.S. investment in R&D over the last decade has declined as a percentage of global investment from 38 percent to 31 percent. Asian nations now account for about 31 percent of global R&D spending.

China is among an emerging group, the so-called “Asian 10” that are significantly increasing science and engineering R&D investment. The group also includes India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines Singapore South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4234984/NSF--U-S--losing-ground-as-more-R-D-jobs-head-overseas?cid=NL_EETimesDaily

It is worse than this report says, since much US R&D is spent on military R&D which is of limited value for economic competititiveness.

[tech3149]

1. I saw this coming years ago

Having worked in a technical field, we had discussions back in the 70's about the future of the industry. The general consensus was that technology would make our skills unneeded. Following that, the ability to advance from the nuts and bolts to design would lessen.
I would say the same holds true when manufacturing is isolated from design and engineering. I saw a severe drop in product quality when manufacturing went off shore.

[FarCenter]

2. Quality of some products went up

Televisions, for example, are a case where the imports were much better than domestic manufacturers.

Sony, Panasonic, et al, did not have relationships with the vast number of "Radio and Television Repair Shops" that once specialized in replacing tubes, capacitors, and other bits of domestically made sets. The imported sets had to work out of the box and they couln't fail. So the import brands made far more reliable sets.

On the other hand, imports from captive off-shore manufacturing plants managed by US companies probably did have poorer quality.