Our Nation’s economic growth depends on our capacity to educate, innovate, and build. Long-term national investments in basic and applied research and development (R&D) play an important role in the flow of market-based innovations through a complex system that leverages the combined talents of scientists and engineers, entrepreneurs, business managers and industrialists. These funds have led to everything from small entrepreneurial initiatives to growth in high technology industries with the concomitant employment of millions of workers. The large impact on employment results from innovation impacts not only in high tech enterprises, but also other industries that benefit from increased capabilities and productivity. Mutually reinforcing and complementary investments in R&D by both private and public sectors work in concert to support the development, production, and commercialization of new products and processes.