AAU Recommendations to President Trump

Prioritize federal investment in fundamental scientific research and infrastructure supported by NSF, NIH, DOE, DOD, NASA, USDA AFRI, and other federal research agencies. Each year, at least 4% real growth in these agencies’ budgets should be devoted to long-term scientific research, and an additional 1% real growth should be focused on scientific infrastructure and research in areas of critical national importance, such as: biotechnology, clean energy, environmental sustainability, artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and advanced manufacturing.  

RATIONALE: Our competitors, specifically China, are increasing the amount of funds their government invests in fundamental research by close to 10% annually. This is part of an intentional strategy to compete and win the race in many key technological areas. Furthermore, China’s annual rate of R&D investment has been three times that of the United States over the past 20 years.  

We also know that federal investments in scientific research have consistently paid enormous dividends for our nation’s health, security, and economy. The computer industry, the Internet, smartphones, the biomedical revolution with its continuing flow of vaccines and lifesaving drugs, and technologies that have made our military the world’s most effective fighting force all had their start in federally funded scientific research conducted at universities.  

To stay ahead of our global competitors, in 2020 the U.S. House Republican China Task Force called for doubling funding for basic science and technology over the next decade – an investment target achievable at 5% growth plus inflation. This goal should be actively pursued by the Trump administration coupled with a commitment to reinvigorate U.S. research infrastructure through investing in research facilities, equipment, instrumentation, and technology transfer programs at the NSF, NIH, DOE, DOD, NASA and other federal agencies. 

To ensure its continued global scientific leadership, the United States should seek to create a specific mechanism to foster international scientific partnerships with countries that share U.S. interests, especially in areas of emerging and critical technologies.   

RATIONALE: International scientific collaboration is critically important to the advancement of fundamental science. The United States, however, lacks a dedicated mechanism to support large-scale, multilateral international collaborations. Meanwhile, other countries have created such mechanisms. For example, more than 20 European Union (EU) member states and associated countries participate in the EU’s Horizon Europe program, while China in recent years has dedicated significant funding to support efforts to drive their own international scientific collaborations.  

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director should constitute the Research Policy Board, as directed by Section 2034 of the 21st Century Cures Act (Public Law 114-255). This board is charged with coordinating and improving regulations and policies, identifying policy and regulatory gaps and challenges, and conducting ongoing assessments of regulatory burdens to enhance efficiencies and optimize the federal investment in research. 

RATIONALE: Research universities often face duplicative and inefficient regulations that are not sensible or scaled to risk. While many of these regulations and reporting requirements are well intentioned, the cumulative burden imposed by the many layers of regulations has become unbearable. Such regulations also reduce faculty productivity by diverting time from research and teaching. 

The Trump Administration should immediately rescind the Biden administration’s draft framework designed to allow Bayh-Dole “march-in” rights to be used to control prices. The National Institutes of Health’s response to previous Bayh-Dole Act “march-in” petitions is the correct understanding of the scope and appropriate uses of these rights and should be upheld.  

RATIONALE: Much innovation in biomedical research – including virtually all vaccines introduced since the 1990s – has occurred because of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which incentivized the transfer of federally funded university-based research to market to advance the public good. But recent efforts to control drug prices by using the “march-in” rights created under Bayh-Dole now threaten the law altogether. This approach is ineffective for its stated purpose and would have a chilling effect on the creation of new drugs. 

The Trump administration should immediately revisit NSPM-33 research security program guidelines to provide more clarity and harmonization of requirements across federal research agencies. Additionally, the administration should direct OSTP to maintain and regularly convene the interagency research security working group established under the National Science and Technology Council and authorized by National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-92) to ensure continued implementation of NSPM-33 and harmonization of agency research security policies. Finally, the OSTP director should appoint an Assistant Director for Research Security within the OSTP staff to oversee NSPM implementation and help coordinate research security policies across federal research agencies.  

RATIONALE: Continued implementation of NSPM-33 and harmonization of research security policies across federal agencies is essential to safeguarding federally funded research from foreign influence, ensuring national security, and maintaining the integrity of the U.S. research enterprise. Standardized policies reduce administrative burdens for researchers and institutions, allowing them to focus on innovation while ensuring compliance with clear and consistent requirements. By fostering secure international collaboration, NSPM-33 balances the need for scientific openness with the imperative to safeguard U.S. research interests.

Create a task force – through PCAST or an independent commission – to conduct a deep assessment of the tools, computational resources, other infrastructure, and skills and knowledge needed to drive AI applications for discovery science at U.S. research institutions and produce a tangible, actionable investment roadmap to sustain U.S. leadership. 

RATIONALE: Applying AI tools to basic research will substantially accelerate the rate of discovery, which will in turn yield benefits for economic growth, Americans’ health, and our national security. While private investment has boomed, the United States currently lacks a clear roadmap to guide investments tailored around specific scientific grand challenges, domains, and applications. Identifying these critical use cases and designing infrastructure and educational investments around them is essential for ensuring we remain at the forefront of the AI-driven science revolution. The Trump administration should seek to develop a clear, actionable strategy that identifies crucial scientific challenges and recommends targeted investments in on- and off-campus resources, education, and science-specific infrastructure to ensure America’s researchers have sufficient and distributed access to the computational tools that will drive discovery. This task force’s recommendations should be considered additional and complementary to existing investments and programs. 

An expansion of the existing credit for basic research contracts will yield positive benefits for society. 

RATIONALE: Industry-academic collaboration in basic research provides significant advantages: industry gets access to basic research it could not effectively perform on its own while academic research is informed by economic needs and society benefits from the new knowledge generated. Current law recognizes these benefits by providing an additional credit of 20% for business payments for qualified basic research expenses at educational institutions and other nonprofit research institutes. The White House should consider recommending increasing the value of this credit to generate further scientific cooperation and economic benefit. 

The administration should support the creation of an early-stage ‘phase 0’ proof-of-concept research program to accelerate the movement of discoveries to the marketplace and increase the number and quality of high-tech start-ups resulting from federally sponsored research.  

This program would help university faculty to commercialize their research by providing them with additional resources and support to better understand potential applications and markets for their discoveries and to develop product development milestones and plans. An existing model for such a program exist in NIH’s Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs (REACH) program.  

RATIONALE: The existing Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs presume there is already evidence that specific research or technology has enough commercial value to attract further investment. In many cases, there is still a gap in the funding needed to push technologies across the chasm between obvious commercial value and successful commercialization. This gap discourages would-be investors from funding studies into the commercial viability of such university-based research advances, preventing universities and faculty entrepreneurs from moving new discoveries and technologies into the marketplace. 

The administration should bolster programs that seek to leverage existing place-based innovation efforts to ensure we are educating a domestic workforce in STEM fields.  

RATIONALE: Programs that encourage community colleges and four-year institutions to partner with industry and others can also magnify federal investments and encourage regional and local economic development while training students in high-demand fields that benefit their community. Examples include the recently launched Accelerator Program tied to the NSF Regional Innovation Engines, which helps eliminate barriers to good jobs created by regional innovation ecosystems, among other things.  

The administration should work to create a direct pathway to a green card – exempt from the numerical cap limitations – that would allow international students to self-petition for residency if they are completing Ph.D. STEM, M.D., and advanced degrees in other designated areas of critical national need at U.S. universities.  

RATIONALE: One of the great strengths of American colleges and universities is their ability to attract the best and brightest international students, scientists, and scholars. Their contributions go beyond the classroom and laboratories and extend into start-up companies, manufacturing, and businesses that create jobs and economic growth. In order to compete with the talent recruitment programs of other nations, the American immigration system needs to be modernized to not only encourage foreign talent to come and study in the United States, but also to make it easier for them to stay after they complete their degrees, to innovate, and to contribute to the U.S. economy.  

The administration should support increasing funding for Federal Work-Study (FWS) and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)  

RATIONALE: The two main campus-based aid programs are the Federal Work-Study (FWS) and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) programs. These programs are critical components of federal student aid that require “skin in the game” or a match from institutions to participate. FWS provides federal and institutional funding to support part-time employment for more than 600,000 undergraduate and graduate students to help pay for college costs and gain valuable work experience. FSEOG provides targeted, need-based grant aid to millions of students. Investing in and increasing funding for these programs will ensure that they are keeping up with inflation and continue to allow students to benefit from them to help keep college costs low. 

The Trump administration should undertake a new initiative to reform the college data reporting system to provide students, families, and stakeholders with accurate and timely information on student access and success.  

RATIONALE: Students and families deserve to have more accurate and timely information to empower them to make well-informed college decisions and help improve their return on investment. The current postsecondary data system is incomplete and does not count all students. Modernizing this system and providing accurate reporting on student outcomes (such as enrollment, degree completion rates, and post-college earnings across colleges and majors) while safeguarding the privacy of individual students would empower students and families to better understand which schools and programs of study are best suited for their unique needs and desired outcomes. This recommendation aligns with AAU’s past support of the College Transparency Act.