The U.S. is still out in front of global rivals when it comes to innovation, but American universities—where new ideas often percolate—have reason to look over their shoulder.
论技术创新，美国仍然在全球遥遥领先。然而，美国的大学院校，作为传播创新思想的重要媒介，如今却有必要感到警惕。
That's especially true for technologies like 5G phone networks and artificial intelligence. They're exactly the fields where President Donald Trump recently insisted the U.S. has to lead—and also the ones where Asia, especially China, has caught up.
尤其在 5G 电话网络和人工智能等科技领域，压力更是不小。美国总统特朗普近来强调，在这两个领域，美国必须始终保持领先姿态。然而，也正是在这两个领域，亚洲各国，尤其是中国，已经迎头赶上。
Universities from China get more patents than their U.S. peers in wireless communications, according to research firm GreyB Services. In AI, 17 of the top 20 universities and public research organizations are in China, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences topping the list, says the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva.
科研服务公司 GreyB Services 的数据显示，在无线通讯领域，中国大学院校获得的专利数量已超过了美国大学。同时，总部位于日内瓦的世界知识产权组织表示，在 AI 领域，申请专利最多的 20 所大学院校和公共研究机构中，有 17 所设在中国，其中，中国科学院位居榜首。
There's a special place for universities in the ecosystem of research. Universities groom future scientists and can be incubators for pie-in-the-sky ideas—some of which turn out to be game-changers. The list ranges from Google's search engine to DNA technology that's behind a whole industry of gene-manipulating treatments.
大学在科研生态系统占据了特殊地位。大学培养未来的科学家，也是很多“异想天开”想法的孵化器——其中一些想法最终改变了行业的格局，包括谷歌的搜索引擎和 DNA 技术，后者促成了基因编辑治疗这一整个行业的诞生。
However, government grants to universities have been stagnant for more than a decade, meaning they've declined in real terms and as a share of the economy.
然而，政府给大学的拨款金额已经十多年不见增加，这就意味着，在通货膨胀下，实际拨款在减少，在经济中的占比也有所下降。
"If you look at the federal dollars, they've not really changed substantially,'' says Stephen Susalka, head of AUTM, a technology transfer association whose members include 800 universities. "Other countries are catching up. We can't sit on our laurels.''
美国大学技术经理人协会（AUTM）是一家负责技术转移的组织，其成员包括 800 所大学。协会负责人斯蒂芬·苏萨尔卡表示，“看看联邦政府的拨款，你会发现基本上没有太大变化。其他国家正在迎头赶上，我们不能安于现状。”