DATE:
May 19, 2026
27
TO:
Board of Supervisors
SUBJECT
Title
STANDING UP FOR SAN DIEGO'S RESEARCH AND INNOVATION ECONOMY BY SUPPORTING SB 895 (DISTRICTS: ALL)
Body
OVERVIEW
San Diego County has built a world class biomedical research and life sciences innovation hub through decades of sustained investment in its research universities and institutions, its scientific and technical workforce, and its ecosystem of entrepreneurs and companies committed to turning scientific discovery into real treatments and technologies. Today, the foundations of San Diego's innovation engine are under threat. The current federal administration has targeted scientific research and development (R&D) funding for major cuts. Thousands of previously awarded grants have been cancelled or suspended, new grant awards have slowed to a trickle, and next year's budget request proposes even steeper cuts across the entire federal R&D enterprise.
San Diego County has been hard hit. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) alone sends over $1 billion to the region annually, supporting more than 1,700 active research projects at UC San Diego, Scripps Research Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, San Diego State University, and a hundred startups and smaller research organizations. Other federal R&D funding streams add hundreds of millions more-In 2024, UC San Diego by itself received $350 million in federal R&D funding from agencies other than the NIH. These investments have a flywheel effect, pulling in an additional $3.5 billion in venture capital and foreign direct investment annually and attracting world class researchers, graduate students, and technical personnel into our labs and startups.
Federal R&D funding cuts have real consequences for the people of San Diego. The biomedical and life sciences industry supports more than 160,000 good local jobs and contributes over $54 billion to regional economic output ever...
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