04 Apr Bayh-Dole Coalition Supports President Trump’s Renewed Commitment to Scientific Progress and Innovation
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 4, 2025) — Yesterday, the Bayh-Dole Coalition sent a letter to President Trump thanking him for tasking Michael Kratsios, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, with revisiting the vision set forth in Dr. Vannevar Bush’s landmark 1945 report, Science: The Endless Frontier.
“The president’s call to ‘blaze a trail to the next frontiers of science’ is timely and firmly rooted in Bush’s visionary foundation,” said Joseph P. Allen, executive director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition. “The Bayh-Dole Coalition stands ready to support this important endeavor in any way we can.”
The letter offered the president important background on the central role that the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 has played in translating federally funded research into real-world innovations. Prior to the Act, federal agencies took ownership of inventions made with government support away from their creators, destroying the incentives needed for the development of breakthrough technologies.
Bayh-Dole reversed this by empowering universities, small businesses, federal laboratories, and nonprofits to retain title to their discoveries and license them, often exclusively, to private partners. Bayh-Dole has contributed trillions to the U.S. economy, launched thousands of startups, and created millions of jobs — without adding bureaucracy or cost to taxpayers.
The letter also raised concerns about recent attempts to weaken the Bayh-Dole system — and urged the White House to protect the policy framework that has been key to American innovation leadership.
“It is timely and essential to reaffirm how federally funded research can best serve the American people,” Allen said. “But federal research dollars won’t catalyze the development of real-world products without substantial private-sector investment — and confidence that the federal government will be a reliable, consistent partner. Preserving Bayh-Dole is critical to that trust.”
About the Bayh-Dole Coalition: The Bayh-Dole Coalition is a group of innovation-oriented organizations and individuals committed to celebrating and protecting the Bayh-Dole Act, as well as informing policymakers and the public of its many benefits.
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