Given that

(i) a recent international review of UK science strongly criticised the increasing focus on near-market research in UK universities; 

(ii) a Russell Group study of the economic impact of scientific research showed that the return on investment of responsive mode (undirected) work was roughly double that arising from commercially-driven programmes; 

(iii) practically every UK university gave extremely negative feedback to the research councils on the proposal to impose economic impact criteria in the peer review process; 

(iv) Phil Willis, Chair of the IUSS Select Committee, has argued that a move towards “command economy science” (of the type recently proposed by Lord Drayson) will “sound the death knell for British research”;  

and (v) the Obama administration has clearly demonstrated its strong commitment to fundamental research, 

why does the Secretary of State feel that the UK economy is best served by a focus on near-term research selected according to, at best, imprecise forecasts of economic impact?

Does the Obama administration present a greater opportunity for American & English universities to work together on research that will help boost the economies of both countries? If so, what can we learn from each other...?