A new study published in Science indicates that university research and the funding that supports it are a "key component of the US economic ecosystem.2 Conducted by researchers from the American Institute for Research (and others), the study found that the economic impact of science funding extends far past the scientific community. "The process of scientific research supports organisations and jobs in many of the high-skill sectors of our economy," write the researchers, who cite several reasons for the impact. University research provides jobs to faculty members, but the study also found that fewer than one in five workers supported by federal research funds are faculty researchers. Instead, one in three is a student, graduate or undergraduate, and one in ten a post-doctoral fellow.
