Materials Research Report, DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences Budget

A good overview of public policy issues surrounding materials research is in a report, “Driving Innovation Through Materials Research,” recently issued by the National Research Council’s Solid State Sciences Committee. The report summarizes presentations made at a forum convened at the National Academy of Sciences in mid-February.

A theme running through many of these presentations, as noted in the report’s abstract, is that “the times they are a-changing.” In summarizing the keynote address by Thomas Weimer of the House Science Committee, the report states: “A national debate is needed to identify a new and sustainable paradigm that will define how science and technology contribute to the national welfare and how the troika of government and its laboratories, industry, and research universities can best work together to address societal goals.” These remarks were echoed by many of the forum’s speakers.

Also much discussed by the forum’s speakers was the need for the scientific community to communicate more with Congress and the general public about the value of research. In reviewing the speech by the Director of DOE’s Office of Energy Research, Martha Krebs, the report notes: “The community must be more effective in educating the public and the Congress about the benefits of science. We must make better use of the available resources by improving cooperation across disciplines and among universities, laboratories, and industry. And we must avoid pitting basic research against applied research or universities against national laboratories. Funding lost in one area will not reappear in another. We must make the case for all of science.”

Copies of this 36-page report are available from: Solid State Sciences Committee; Board on Physics and Astronomy; National Research Council, HA 562; 2101 Constitution Avenue, NW; Washington, D.C. 20418, or viewed at http://www.nas.edu/bpa/forum96.html

DOE’S FY 1997 BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES BUDGET - UPDATE

In response to FYIs #146 and 149, we received an inquiry about the decline in the administration’s request and subsequent congressional appropriation for the Basic Energy Sciences program at the Department of Energy. We have been informed by DOE that several programs previously under BES, including Applied Mathematical Sciences, Advanced Energy Projects, and Program Direction are now funded under different categories. In order to compare “apples to apples” budgets, we have subtracted out these items, and then adjusted for inflation. The result: the “adjusted” BES research program budget increased 4.5 percent from FY 1995 to FY 1997. Between FY 1996 and FY 1997 the adjusted budget declined 2.9 percent.