Scientists in the US remain the best funded in the world, but they say falling federal investment and cuts due to sequestration, coupled with the enormous resources other countries are lavishing on research, are creating an “innovation deficit”.

The consequence, say the presidents of more than 200 US universities, will be fewer US scientific and technological breakthroughs, fewer US patents and fewer US start-ups, products and jobs. Investment in research is not inconsistent with deficit reduction, indeed it is vital to it, they said in an open letter to President Barack Obama and members of Congress last summer.

The pressure researchers are coming under to justify federal funding was underlined last month in Chicago at one of their big annual conferences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The meeting, held every year since 1848, is intended to showcase the latest from the laboratory. This year however, the focus was not on research, but on innovation, entrepreneurship and the economy.