Congress still has considerable work to do on finalizing the FY 2007
program budgets of interest to the physics and astronomy community.
On the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, work is underway on the budget
request that President Bush will send to Congress next February for
FY 2008, which will start on October 1, 2007. Last month, OSTP Director
John Marburger and OMB Director Rob Portman outlined the Administration's
research and development budget priorities in a six-page memorandum
to the heads of executive departments and agencies (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/fy2006/m06-17.pdf.)
The following are selections from this June 23 memorandum:
The memo begins: "This memo highlights the Administration's
research and development (R&D) priorities and emphasizes improving
management and performance to maintain excellence and leadership in
science and technology. The memo highlights the President's American
Competitiveness Initiative, provides general guidance for setting priorities
among R&D programs, identifies interagency R&D efforts that
should receive special focus in agency budget requests, and reiterates
the R&D Investment Criteria that agencies should use to improve
investment decisions for and management of their R&D programs."
The memo immediately reaffirms the Administration's commitment to the
American Competitiveness Initiative. While interest has been expressed
on Capitol Hill that other federal research agencies should be considered
for inclusion in this initiative, the ACI continues to be focused in
FY 2008 on NSF, the DOE Office of Science, and NIST's core activities.
When describing the ACI earlier this year, the Administration explained
that the sum total of the three agencies' budgets would double over
ten years. The memo takes a somewhat different approach by stating that
"overall annual increases for these three agencies will average
roughly seven percent." Note that the last sentence of the following
paragraph states "similarly high-impact basic and applied research
of the Department of Defense should be a significant priority."
The entire (unedited) paragraph follows:
"Presidential Priority: The American Competitiveness Initiative
"To build on America's unparalleled economic success and to remain
a leader in science and technology, President Bush has proposed the
American Competitiveness Initiative. The centerpiece of the American
Competitiveness Initiative is the President's strong commitment to double
investment over ten years in key Federal agencies that support basic
research in the physical sciences and engineering that has potentially
high impact on economic competitiveness. President Bush plans to double
investment by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy's
Office of Science, and the Department of Commerce's National Institute
of Standards and Technology core activities. To achieve this doubling
within ten years, overall annual increases for these three agencies
will average roughly seven percent. Specific allocations will be based
on research priorities and opportunities. In addition to the doubling
effort at these three agencies, similarly high-impact basic and applied
research of the Department of Defense should be a significant priority."
The memo then outlines, in a section entitled, "General R&D
Program Guidance," that "the combination of finite resources,
the commitment to the American Competitiveness Initiative, and a multitude
of new research opportunities requires careful attention to funding
priorities and wise choices by agency managers." The memo outlines
the type of federal R&D investment that the Administration favors
(i.e., "support high-leverage basic research to spur technological
innovation, economic competitiveness and new job growth.") Regarding
new programs, the memorandum states, "Agencies may propose new,
high-priority activities, but these requests should identify potential
offsets by elimination or reductions in less effective or lower priority
programs or programs where Federal involvement is no longer needed or
appropriate."
Under this section, the memorandum discusses scientific openness and
the approach that federal agencies and their employees should practice
in the following (unedited) paragraph: "This Administration
values science as a basis for effective action in its service to the
public, and regards the timely, complete and accurate communication
of scientific information an important part of that service. It is also
essential for agencies to be aware of and coordinate within their organizations,
and with other appropriate offices, the disclosure of information likely
to have high public interest or impact on markets, regulatory affairs,
or public health and safety. Accordingly, agencies have already been
asked to develop, revise or re-emphasize policies related to scientific
openness and to ensure that employees and management understand their
rights and obligations under these policies. All federal employees,
including scientists, are obliged to distinguish their personal views
from the official positions of their agencies, and procedures should
be in place to ensure that such distinctions are clearly drawn."
The memorandum then addresses the interagency National Science and
Technology Council, touching on the stewardship of Federal scientific
collections. It also discusses the "linkages between R&D investments"
and societal benefits: "Determining the effectiveness of Federal
science policy requires an understanding of the complex linkages between
R&D investments and economic and other variables that lead to innovation,
competitiveness, and societal benefits. An interagency process has been
established and is now encouraged to promote and coordinate individual
agency and collaborative actions needed to develop [a] ‘new
science of science policy' for better assessing the impact of R&D
investments, defining appropriate metrics for measuring this impact,
understanding the effect of the globalization of science and technology,
and improving the basis for national science policy decisions."
Under "Interagency R&D Priorities," which are "areas
[that] require strong interagency coordination," the memo lists
six "interagency R&D priorities [that] should receive special
focus in agency budget requests." They are Homeland Security, Energy
Security, Advanced Networking and High-End Computing, National Nanotechnology
Initiative, Understanding Complex Biological Systems, and Environment.
Selections from some of the accompanying descriptions follow:
Energy Security: "Agencies should seek ways to support
the AEI [Advanced Energy Initiative] through fundamental research
targeting scientific and technical breakthroughs in two vital areas:
diversifying energy sources for American homes and businesses; and increased
vehicle efficiency and acceleration of the development of domestic,
renewable alternatives to gasoline and diesel fuels. . . . carbon sequestration
processes, new semiconducting materials that more efficiently convert
sunlight directly to electricity, wind energy dynamics, and clean and
safe nuclear energy. Numerous opportunities for alternative fuels range
from bio-based transportation fuels such as ethanol, to advanced battery
technologies to extend the range of hybrid vehicles and make possible
‘plug-in' hybrids and electric cars, to hydrogen as promoted through
the President's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative."
National Nanotechnology Initiative: ". . . support both
basic and applied research in nanoscience, develop instrumentation and
methods for nanoscale characterization and metrology, and disseminate
new technical capabilities, including those to help industry advance
nanofabrication and nanomanufacturing. Because research at the nanoscale
offers natural bridges to interdisciplinary collaboration, especially
at the intersection of the life and physical sciences, the Administration
encourages novel approaches to accelerating interdisciplinary and interagency
collaborations. Activities such as joint programs utilizing shared resources
or leveraging complementary assets, as well as support for interdisciplinary
activities at centers and user facilities should receive higher relative
priority. To ensure that nanoscience research leads to the responsible
development of beneficial applications, high priority should be given
to research on societal implications, human health, and environmental
issues related to nanotechnology and agencies should develop, where
applicable, cross-agency approaches to the funding and execution of
this research."
Understanding Complex Biological Systems: "Agencies
should target investments toward the development of a deeper understanding
of complex biological systems, which will require collaborations among
physical, computational, behavioral, social, and biological scientists
and engineers who will, among other things, need to develop the data
management tools and platforms necessary to facilitate this research.
. . ."
Environment: (paragraphs combined, and marked with //) "Global
earth observations support research in a wide range of sciences important
for society. The ‘U.S. Strategic Plan for an Integrated Earth Observations
System' provides guidance for agencies contributing to these efforts
and establishes six Near Term Opportunities that serve as the focal
point of U.S. R&D activities. Agencies are encouraged to align their
R&D programs in this area with the recommendations in the U.S Group
on Earth Observations' annual report, ‘Development of the U.S.
Integrated Earth Observations System: Progress and Recommendations for
the Way Forward.' // Investments in global climate change science and
technology continue to improve our understanding of climate variability
and change, provide the basis for sound long-term climate policy decision-making
by helping to reduce uncertainty in climate projections, and enable
the development of new technologies. Agencies should continue to support
the goals of the 2003 ‘Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change
Science Program' and continue to work together to develop the Synthesis
and Assessment Reports called for in that report. // Agencies are encouraged
to continue implementing activities outlined in the Administration's
2004 U.S. Ocean Action Plan, to continue to participate in the development
of an Ocean Research Priorities Plan and Implementation Strategy and
to begin aligning their budgets to match the emerging priorities that
will be finalized this year, and to integrate U.S. ocean observing efforts
into the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. // U.S. and global
supplies of fresh water continue to be critical to human health and
economic prosperity. Agencies, through the NSTC process, are developing
a coordinated, multi-year plan to improve research aimed at understanding
the processes that control water availability and quality, and to improve
collection and availability of the data needed to ensure an adequate
water supply for the future. Agencies should participate in the finalization
of this plan and in its subsequent implementation."
The memo concludes with a discussion of the President's Management
Agenda.
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