On Apr. 25, 2012, U.S. Representatives Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), and Robert J. Dold (R-Ill.) joined several business, university, scientific and public policy organizations to announce the creation of the Golden Goose Award.

The award highlighted the often unexpected or serendipitous nature of basic scientific research by honoring federally funded researchers whose work may once have been viewed as unusual, odd or obscure, but has produced important discoveries benefiting society in significant ways.

From 1975 to 1988, Senator William Proxmire issued monthly “Golden Fleece Awards,” which targeted federal spending Proxmire considered wasteful. Unfortunately, the awards often targeted federally-funded scientific research for ridicule. Science that sounded odd or obscure was easily singled out, but the awards reflected fundamental misunderstanding of how science works, and how such research can turn out to be extremely important regardless of whether it makes sense to non-scientists. Indeed, such research can have a major impact on society. The nature of scientific research is that its impact is hard to predict.

It is this legacy that Representative Jim Cooper of Tennessee was intent on reversing when he envisioned the Golden Goose Award. Congressman Cooper foresaw an award that would recognize the tremendous human and economic benefits of federally funded research by highlighting examples of seemingly obscure studies that have led to major breakthroughs and resulted in significant societal impact.

In 2012, the Golden Goose Awards’ founding organizations took up Representative Cooper’s idea and issued the first three awards to groups of researchers whose seemingly obscure, federally-funded research had led to major breakthroughs in biomedical research, medical treatments, and computing and communications technologies.

Since then, groups of researchers have been recognized each year for breakthroughs in the development of life-saving medicines and treatments; game-changing social and behavioral insights; and major technological advances related to national security, energy, the environment, communications, and public health.

In 2017, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the founding organizations, brought the award under its stewardship.