Follow the dollars to the R&D action

Recent studies reveal that the total amount of foreign direct investment is shifting heavily toward India and China, and that the R&D component of this investment is increasing as well."

This is one of many eminently quotable, er quotes, from the latest statistical splurge from the number crunchers at Battelle, Columbus, Ohio, via R&D Magazine, purveyor of fine advice on how to kit out your laboratory.

The jist of this particular message - check Battelle's press release too - seems to be that money once flowing into the US to support R&D now goes elsewhere.

The 12-page data dense package also tells us that "Although earlier warnings regarding the availability of research scientists and engineers - voiced several years ago - were later relaxed as a result of corrections in data analysis, the potential now for serious shortfalls appears to be more realistic."

Here's another one: "U.S. industry funds just under two-thirds of all U.S. R&D (64.4%) and performs just under three quarters (71.8%) of it."

What does it all add up to? A pretty severe warning from the authors of the survey: "Unless we take major steps now - not five years from now - we are going to find ourselves, as a country, in exactly the same position we had when the first Sputnik went up in 1957: caught with a significant technological surprise!"