WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama promised a new era of science and technology for the nation, telling the National Academy of Sciences on Monday that he wants to devote more funds to research and development.
America has fallen behind other countries in science, he said.
“I believe it is not in our character, American character, to follow but to lead. And it is time for us to lead once again. . . . We will devote more than 3 percent of our gross domestic product to research and development,” Obama said in a speech at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences. That 3 percent would amount to about $420 billion.
“We will not just meet, but we will exceed the level achieved at the height of the space race,” he said.
Obama set forth a wish list, including solar cells as cheap as paint; green buildings that produce all the energy they consume; learning software as effective as a personal tutor; prostheses so advanced that a person could play the piano again; and “an expansion of the frontiers of human knowledge about ourselves and world the around us.”
Obama said he plans to double the budget of key science agencies over a decade, including the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.
He also announced the launch of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, a new Department of Energy organization.
