John Walker’s latest article published in the February 2012 issue of Defense News examines the impact of the global economy on research and development budgets, and what could happen to technological advances.
Europe is in crisis, Asia is slowing and our own economy is struggling with mounting debt and weakened fundamentals. As fiscal pressures build, research budgets have come under attack as a great place to find savings with the lowest near-term pain associated with potential reductions. Companies are faced with this hard fact more and more and are left with little options. What is the best course of action? Terminate an equivalent investment in research that will not amount to anything for years to come? Do the former and people will scream bloody murder. Do the latter and there will be the inevitable outcries, but the stakeholder community will be smaller and the trickle-down economic impact lower.
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