Study On The United States Federal Government Research Funding Policy On Research Universities Scientific Research After World War Ⅱ

The World War Ⅱ,as the divide of funding university research by the U.S. federal government is a very important historical period for academic research of U.S. research universities.From1897,the establishment of the first U.S.modern research university Johns Hopkins University to1940, only about a dozen universities in the United States was called research university, but nearly none of these universities could get any financial aid of the U.S. federal government.Until World War II, along with the outstanding performance of research universities in the " Manhattan Project",kicked off the beginning of funding scientific research of a large-scale research universities by the federal government.Therefore, from a historical perspective, focus on the federal government funding to university research since World War Ⅱ,this article attempts to elaborate the trajectory of the evolution of the federal government university research funding policy, aiming at analysis of the game which surrounds funding university research policy of the federal government, showing the evolution of partnership between the federal government and University, and expect to provide reflection and inspiration for the development of higher education research funding system in China, thinking of the conclusions of the scientific university policy in the U.S.,in order to prevent our research funding process from re-taking unnecessary detours.During the study, the dissertation uses triple helix theory, interest group theory, and based on research needs, alternating to use the literature, historical analysis, factor analysis, to explore the policy of U.S. federal government’s research funding for university’s research after World War II. This paper is constituted by three parts: the background, the history and evolution concluding reflection of funding researching of research universities by the U.S. federal government. In order to investigate issues of why the U.S. federal government funded research universities, the federal government’s policies in different historical stages,the impact of federal funding policies on research universities’researching.Background of funding research-Chapter1:The part is summary and analysis of background of why the federal government funds university research and continues to fund it, providing a basis for federal support and participating in funding universities research. After World War II, realizing the key role of the basic research to U.S. competitiveness, the U.S. federal government continued to increase research funding for universities,which has become the primary source of research funding for the university research. In1944, Vannevar Bush proposed the report" Science-the Endless Frontier ", fully demonstrated the importance of university-based scientific research to national development, laid the foundation for the United States to establish a university at the core of scientific research. Thus, basic research of universities is regarded as the beginning of the all technology.Since then, regardless of the competition which is based on ideology or economic competitiveness competition, the U.S. federal government have emphasized to establish close partnerships with universities. The study found that with the growing importance of scientific research universities, the lobbying of relevant interest groups (the big six lobbying association), the financing difficulties of universities, the economic competitiveness challenges brought by the globalization and internationalization has become the major factor because of which the United States federal government has stepped up to expand the university research funding.Funding history and evolution-Chapter2to chapter5:This part is the core of this article, focusing on the launched game in the federal university research funding policies,showing the evolution of university and federal partnership. The study found that in the long history of research funding, the role of research universities in the United States has took a new turn, from the edge to the community center of society, becoming a policy priority of the government.However, at the same time, due to the difference on the definition of the concept of scientific research between universities and the government,friction often appears between each other. Based on national interests and partisan change in different historical periods, the federal government has developed different funding university research policies.These science policies are more influenced by political agendas, made it completely difficult to go in accordance with the Science essence of research freedom, research funding appears the plight of academic research,stimulating the sensitive nerves of research,such as funding imbalance, practical, and politics, and so on. After the World War Ⅱ, until1957,the satellite crisis, the main areas that the federal government-funded has been focused on engineering field, after that, in response to the Soviet satellite crisis, Eisenhower signed the " National Defense Education Act",developed the Apollo project, accordingly,the focus of the federal science funding field was shifted to physics; At the end of20th century and the beginning of21th, because of facing severe health problems, the United States federal funding has focused on biomedical fields. After the Reagan administration, faced with the threat of international competitive position, thus, strengthened the selectivity of university research funded by the federal government, on his occasion, through "the Bayh-Dole act of1980",he pushed the University Research directly to market; At the beginning of21th, during the Bush administration,the federal university research funding is focused on "missile and medical" combination, scientific and political issues are intensified, the Federal government research funding policy of University is questioned; and with the Democrat,Obama,the"Friends of Science "taking the place in2009, the partnership between the federal government and universities was slowed to recover. The Obama administration is trying to change the Bush administration’s science policy, declaring that the science will continue to return to the proper place.Concluding Reflections-Chapter6:This part tries to summarize and reflect the double impact of the federal government scientific research policy on research universities.Through study, we found that, on one hand, after half a century of development, the federal has established a close partnership with the University, the university research has become one of the priorities of federal government,what’s more, federal research funding has become the primary source of university scientific research funding, which provides a stable driving force for university research,and ensures the competitiveness of American higher education, as well as the competitive U.S. economic; On the other hand, the prosperous federal research funding of university research also makes university scientific research face multifaceted crisis. Especially in the period of economic crisis,the federal generally reduces the magnitude of research funding to tighten fiscal, emphasizing the usefulness and purpose of university research, making university research freedom and the spirit of scientific inquiry restricted, with universities facing the problems of academic independence decline, uneven distribution of grant funds,imbalance of funding areas and other problems.