Science and Engineering Innovation Legislation

Posted on December 18, 2005  Comments (5)

Ensign, Lieberman Introduce Major Bipartisan Innovation Legislation – the press release from Senator Lieberman’s office indicates Science and Engineering Fellowships Legislation we mentioned previously, has been introduced:

Our legislation will significantly increase federal support for graduate fellowship and traineeship programs in science, math, and engineering fields in order to attract more students to these fields and to create a more competitive and innovative American workforce.
…
China and India alone graduate 6.4 million from college each year and over 950,000 engineers. The United States turns out 1.3 million college graduates and 70,000 engineers.
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Expands existing educational programs in the physical sciences and engineering by increasing funding for NSF graduate research fellowship programs as well as Department of Defense science and engineering scholarship programs.

The recent report from Duke, explains that the figures on science and engineering graduates used are not accurate (see below). Still, this seems like a good idea. The press release also includes a list of organizations supporting the legislation including: Athena Alliance, Business Roundtable, Council on Competitiveness, Council of Scientific Society Presidents. From the section by section details included on the web site:

The Director of NSF will expand the agency’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program by 250 fellowships per year and extend the length of each fellowship to five years. Program by 250 fellowships per year and extend the length of each fellowship to five years. The bill authorizes $34 million/year for FY 2007- FY 2011 to support these additional fellowships. In addition, funding in the amount of $57 million/year is authorized for a similar expansion of the Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program by 250 new traineeships per year over five years.
The Tech Talent expansion program encourages American universities to increase the number of graduates with degrees in mathematics and science. The bill authorizes $335 million from Fiscal Year 2007 to Fiscal Year 2010 for continued support of this program.
This section extends the Department of Defense’s Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarships program through September 30, 2011, and authorizes $41.3 million/year over 5 years for the SMART program to support additional participants pursuing doctoral degrees and master’s degrees in relevant fields. This section also authorizes $45 million/year over 5 years to be appropriated to the Department of Defense through 2011 to support the expansion of the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship program to additional participants.

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5 Responses to “Science and Engineering Innovation Legislation”

  1. CuriousCat: Proposed Legislation on Science and Education
    March 3rd, 2006 @ 12:27 pm

    Each year, up to 25,000 bright young Americans would receive a 4-year competitive scholarship to earn a bachelor’s degree in science, engineering or math, so that our brightest students pursue studies in these fields which are so critical to our economic growth…

  2. CuriousCat: The World’s Best Research Universities
    August 19th, 2006 @ 9:53 am

    I would predict (as would most, I would imagine) that China and India will have much greater representation 10-20 years from now (those gains will have to come at the expense of others and I would imagine Europe and the USA will show relative declines)…

  3. Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » How Many Engineers?
    November 2nd, 2006 @ 2:36 pm

    […] A good read. I believe there is a difference between equilibrium for the individuals who choose to be engineers (or something else) and the equilibrium that is best for the economy of the country. The many advantages that having a strong engineering workforce is a huge part of why China, Singapore, Korea, India, USA, China, Mexico and many others are investing in that area. […]

  4. CuriousCat: Science Interview with John Edwards
    July 11th, 2007 @ 8:18 am

    “The answers overall seem to be lacking in specifics. While providing a show of support for science they don’t seem to offer much else.”

  5. CuriousCat » Proposal to Triple NSF GFRP Awards and the Size of the Awards by 33%
    November 10th, 2007 @ 12:22 pm

    That sounds great to me. I have talked about this before: Increasing American Fellowship Support for Scientists and Engineers…

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