The journal nature asks in an online column what the recession will mean for R&D spending, with special attention to energy research and the venture capital scene:
If history is any guide, the worldwide research enterprise could survive this downturn comparatively well. Total research and development (R&D) spending by both government and industry rose at a fairly steady rate through major recessions in the early 1980s and 1990s, as well as through the 'dot-com' bust in the early 2000s.
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Japan, for example, has dipped in and out of recession since an asset bubble burst in the late 1980s. But Hayashi Towatari, the head of the science ministry's science and technology policy bureau, points out that Japan has maintained one of the highest rates of R&D investment as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) in the world — 3.62% in 2007. The science budget is currently flat, he says, and seems unlikely to grow anytime soon given the economic turmoil. But even so, he says, Japan is committed to the idea that science will build the economy
To be honest, the example of Japan may not be the best. Many critics of Japan would suggest it's economic growth would have been much higher with a greater focus on institutitonal reform and less on centralized investment strategies.
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