ACS joins CSNR to congratulate Under Secretary of Defense

August 12, 2021

The Honorable Heidi Shyu
Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering
U.S. Department of Defense
1400 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301

Dear Ms. Shyu,

Congratulations on being confirmed as the next Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)). The undersigned members of the Coalition for National Security Research (CNSR) look forward to working with you and all of R&E to further strengthen the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) science and technology (S&T) enterprise.

CNSR is a coalition with more than 100 members from industry, academia, scientific and professional associations, and non-profits committed to advocating for a strong Defense S&T enterprise. With approximately 70 percent of research, development, test and evaluation conducted extramurally1, CNSR members are proud to partner with DoD to create new and improve existing technologies and capabilities to ensure that the United States maintains its global military technological superiority.

We were particularly pleased with your advance policy questions to the Senate Armed Services Committee related to investments in basic research. You rightfully noted that the National Academies and Council on Competitiveness have recommended that DoD allocated 20 percent of its S&T budget to basic research, but actual funding has steadily declined the past 5 years. Unfortunately, the FY 2022 budget request calls for further reducing basic research funding by approximately 14.5 percent. This call for cutting basic research has been a recurring theme in the past several DoD budget requests. We are hopeful that as USD(R&E) you can work with the Secretary and Deputy Secretary to reverse these trends.

Again, congratulations on your confirmation. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of service to you and we look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Aerospace Industries Association (AIA)
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
American Chemical Society (ACS)
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
American Mathematical Society (AMS)
American Political Science Association
American Psychological Association (APA)
American Society for Engineering Education
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