The broad national research and development (R&D) enterprise is directly linked to graduate education in science and engineering. Graduate students are not only the future scientists of society, through research assistantships, they also provide valuable labor for the development of research and technology. Therefore, federal R&D policies should be designed to foster scientific and technological innovation to improve societal needs, as well as more adequately train scientists. Inspired by innovative R&D strategies implemented in Canada and the United Kingdom (U.K.), the author provides specific recommendations in this brief to enhance American R&D capacity through the better training of future scientists for the demands of the 21st century. (Contains 1 table.)