Barack Obama on Monday promised to double public funding of scientific research to exceed the level Washington spent during the “space race” unleashed by Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy 50 years ago.

The US president’s pledge, made in a speech at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, included a promise to take ideology out of public research following what many scientists saw as the politicisation of science under George W. Bush – particularly in the field of climate change.