Senators Announce Bipartisan National Innovation Act

Senators John Ensign (R-NV) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) introduced the National Innovation Act last month that focuses on research investment, increasing science and technology talent and developing an innovation infrastructure to keep the United States in the lead in innovation. Highlights of the bill include:

• Establishing the Innovation Acceleration Grants Program which encourages federal agencies funding research in science and technology to allocate 3% of their Research and Development (R&D) budgets to grants directed toward high-risk frontier research.
• Increasing the national commitment to basic research by nearly doubling research funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) by FY 2011.
• Making permanent the Research and Experimentation (R&E) tax credit with modifications expanding eligibility for incentives to a greater number of firms.
• Authorizing the Department of Defense to create a competitive traineeship program for undergraduate and graduate students in defense science and engineering that focuses on multidisciplinary learning and innovation-oriented studies.
• Authorizing funding for new and existing Professional Science Master’s Degree Programs to increase the number of qualified scientists and engineers entering the workforce.

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