[jostmey]

I do not believe that the U.S. government should fund translational research. I firmly believe that private enterprise will be able to efficiently make immediate use of any important scientific breakthroughs or discoveries. Instead, I believe that the government should pore funding into basic science research.

I completely disagree with the Author's implicit assertion that the U.S. government should spend less money funding scientific research. Private industry did not discover the importance of DNA, nor was it responsible for determining the chemical structure of this nucleic acid. Many fundamental discoveries would never have occurred in private industry simply because private industry cannot afford to heavily fund basic science.

The value of basic science is not felt within a decade or two. It takes a lifetime to appreciate.

[jlcx]

Some private organizations have very deep pockets, and it's not just industry, as non-profits can also fund research. But if industry is biased toward applied/translational research, perhaps it's not just a focus on short-term profitability or a lack of funds for large projects. One interesting idea is that patent laws are partially responsible for this bias, because they grant a temporary monopoly on inventions/applications, but not on basic science.

[djcapelis]

> as non-profits can also fund research

They can, but the reality is very few are really prepared to do a good job of it and even fewer have the resources to really fund the portfolios relevant to them in the same way other institutions (gov, some large corps, etc) do.

The non-profit sector has a bunch of hard working folks with great goals and there's a bunch of good uses for them to put money toward, but frankly I'm not sure R&D is the one that makes the best impact. I think if a non-profit is going to fund R&D they need to be really really smart, innovative and/or creative to make their money get the type of impact they could get on spending it in critical areas outside of R&D.

This changes depending on the field though. In some areas of the arts and humanities, non-profit funding is a huge and valuable source of funding.

But in tech/sci/eng? Not so much.

[paul_f]

One of the most naive statements I have ever heard on HN: "I firmly believe that private enterprise will be able to efficiently make immediate use of any important scientific breakthroughs or discoveries."

The reality is that companies don't do anything with academic discoveries until they are shovel-ready. Translational research is critical and horribly underfunded.

[michaelt]

Well, it's industry-dependent. The pharmaceutical industry spends plenty on internal research; they fund some academic research; and there's a revolving door between academia and private industry.

Most industries aren't like this, of course; I doubt my barber or my accountant have much use for academic research output.