National Science Foundation Marks 75th Anniversary

On May 10, the National Science Foundation (NSF) marked its 75^th anniversary of advancing groundbreaking science on behalf of the American people. For decades, NSF-funded research has kept the United States at the global frontier of technology and innovation, supporting breakthroughs such as the Internet, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence. In all, one-fourth of all private-sector productivity gains since World War II have come from breakthroughs resulting from federally funded research.

Seeing this extraordinary return on investment, competitor nations have ramped up public investment in research and development to challenge U.S. leadership across a wide array of science and technology domains. NSF-funded research is more important than ever to advance U.S. innovation dominance and tackle stubborn challenges such as treating and curing debilitating diseases through biotechnology, discovering energy breakthroughs, and advancing new approaches to help communities stay safe from natural disasters. APLU encourages its member institutions to help celebrate the 75^th anniversary and showcase the pathbreaking NSF-funded research on their campuses, particularly at a moment when the agency’s funding is at risk.