China may have already overtaken the U.S. in research and development spending, ending a half century of American hegemony in financing scientific innovation, according to an American Association for the Advancement of Science researcher. “We’re entering into uncharted territory,” said Alessandra Zimmermann, the association’s R&D budget and policy program project director, during last week’s Association of Public and Land-grant Universities annual conference. In a follow-up interview with Inside Higher Ed this week, Zimmermann said, “No one knows what it looks like when the U.S. is not the dominant spender because there is no analogue.”
