Jul 19， 2018

Recently my company Huawei was strongly criticised by several members of the US Congress． They asked the US secretary of education to investigate whether our co-operation with US universities on basic scientific research might threaten US national security． I believe this criticism displays an ignorance of how contemporary science and innovation work and I recently described it as “ ill-informed” in a media interview．

I did not mean this as a personal attack． Rather I was seeking to highlight the importance of academic freedom as an essential feature of modern universities， one that underpins all technological development and helps cultivate the next generation of scientific talent．

Academic freedom is the cornerstone of higher learning． This freedom from political and other interference allows the US consistently to attract the world’s brightest minds to study and conduct research within its borders． It also supports the US’s continued status as a global technology leader．

I hold a doctorate in engineering and have experience in basic research， which the National Science Foundation defines as “study directed toward greater knowledge or understanding．．．without specific applications toward processes or products”．

While corporate research and development tends to focus on commercial outcomes， universities devote time to mathematics， algorithms， material science and other applications that might never make money． Even if the research pays off eventually， closing the gap between a theory and a commercial product can take decades．

Collaboration between universities and businesses can accelerate this process． The exchange of knowledge and resources among the private sector， academia， and research institutes， known as knowledge transfer， has become a vital driver of scientific and technological progress．

But US federal funding for higher education research has fallen steadily over the past decade． Today it represents less than 50 per cent of total American university research funding．

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