{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T04:43:47Z","timestamp":1792125827550,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":59,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]],"date-time":"2026-10-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1791849600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":13,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Scientific capacity built over generations is being weakened by abrupt political disruption just as discovery is becoming faster, more convergent, globally networked, and more socially consequential. Restoring funding and protecting scientific institutions are urgent, but not sufficient: the postwar compact that sustained discovery before its uses were known must be renewed for 21st-century conditions and made resilient to arbitrary disruption. We propose the Discovery Compact, a renewed social contract among government, science, industry, and the public that treats discovery as shared public infrastructure\u2014capacity a plural society builds, tends, and holds in common across generations. It is organized around five criteria: (i) sustaining discovery as national infrastructure; (ii) enabling institutions to move at speed without sacrificing rigor; (iii) building scientific capacity through people, openness, and mobility; (iv) translating discovery without depleting its source; and (v) securing democratic legitimacy and institutional resilience. Together, these criteria direct policy toward durable scientific capacity and insulate against indiscriminate deregulation, compulsory commercialization, arbitrary institutional disruption, and political control of scientific judgment. This Perspective is not a legislative template but an invitation to a national and international process of protecting and renewing the institutions and infrastructure through which societies discover, generate, protect, and prepare.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/pnasnexus\/pgag312","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]],"date-time":"2026-10-13T12:01:59Z","timestamp":1791892919000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Discovery as public infrastructure: Renewing the social contract for science"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"5","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5292-4470","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sergio","family":"Carbajo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California , Los Angeles, CA 90045 ,","place":["USA"]},{"name":"Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Los Angeles, CA 90045 ,","place":["USA"]},{"name":"SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory , Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA 94025 ,","place":["USA"]},{"name":"California NanoSystems Institute , Los Angeles, CA 90095 ,","place":["USA"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7620-522X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Asad","family":"Madni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California , Los Angeles, CA 90045 ,","place":["USA"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3754-5982","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Julia","family":"Powles","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Technology, Law & Policy, University of California , Los Angeles, CA 90045 ,","place":["USA"]},{"name":"School of Law, University of California , Los Angeles, CA 90045 ,","place":["USA"]},{"name":"Sydney Law School, University of Sydney , Sydney, New South Wales 2050 ,","place":["Australia"]},{"name":"Centre for Business Research, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB2 1QA ,","place":["United Kingdom"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2307\/j.ctv15r5879","volume-title":"Science, the endless frontier","author":"Bush","year":"2021"},{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"225","DOI":"10.1080\/10438599.2017.1329189","article-title":"The legacy and promise of Vannevar Bush: rethinking the model of innovation and the role of public policy","volume":"27","author":"Leyden","year":"2018","journal-title":"Econ Innov New Technol"},{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"561","DOI":"10.1111\/1475-5890.12195","article-title":"Have R&D spillovers declined in the 21st century?","volume":"40","author":"Lucking","year":"2019","journal-title":"Fisc Stud"},{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.3386\/w27863","volume-title":"A calculation of the social returns to innovation","author":"Jones","year":"2020"},{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.5250745","article-title":"The social returns to public R&D","author":"Fieldhouse","year":"2025"},{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.4301178","article-title":"Macroeconomic effects of public R&D","author":"De Lipsis","year":"2022"},{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.6665542","article-title":"The public origins of American innovation","author":"Gazzani","year":"2026"},{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B8"},{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2537854123","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2537854123","article-title":"How to revive science in America","volume":"123","author":"Fineberg","year":"2026","journal-title":"Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A"},{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B10","author":"Ruiz"},{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B11","author":"Pielke"},{"key":"2026101523463542800_pgag312-B12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"718","DOI":"10.2307\/2585530","article-title":"Pasteur\u2019s quadrant: basic science and technological innovation. 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