The nationUs investment has yielded a scientific enterprise without peer, whether measured in term of discoveries, citations, awards and prizes, advanced education, or contributions to industrial and informational innovation. Our scientific strength is a treasure which we must sustain and build on for the future. To fulfill our responsibility to future generations by ensuring that our children can compete in the global economy, we must invest in the scientific enterprise at a rate commensurate with its growing importance to society. We must provide the necessary educational opportunities for each of our citizens. Failure to exercise our responsibility will place our children's future at risk.
Science does indeed provide an endless frontier.
Advancing that frontier and exploring the cosmos we live in helps to feed our sense of adventure and our passion for discovery. The unfolding secrets of nature provide new knowledge to address crucial challenges, often in unpredictable ways. These include improving human health, creating breakthrough technologies that lead to new industries and high quality jobs, enhancing productivity with information technologies and improved understanding of human interactions, meeting our national security needs, protecting and restoring the global environment, and feeding and providing energy for a growing population. The challenges of the twenty-first century will place a high premium on sustained excellence in scientific research and education. The first goal was elaborated in the Administration statement RTechnology for AmericaUs Economic GrowthS, and the second in the Vice PresidentUs RNational Performance Review.