FY 2016 Budget Request: The National Institute of Standards and Technology

The Obama Administration has requested an increase of 29.6 percent in the budget for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a component of the US Department of Commerce. Under this request, sent to Congress on Monday, the budget would increase from $863.9 million to $1,119.7 million.

Information on the NIST request is found in a seventeen-page chapter starting on page 111 of The Department of Commerce, Budget in Brief, Fiscal Year 2016 . Introductory material is also found on page 1.

In a section entitled Highlights of Program Changes for NIST’s laboratory programs are descriptions concerning the neutron research facility, materials genome initiative, disaster resilient buildings and infrastructure, advanced communications, cybersecurity, urban cyber physical systems, manufacturing entrepreneurship, quantum information science, biomanufacturing, technology transfer, and advanced sensing for manufacturing. Regarding this last program, the document states: “NIST will support advanced manufacturing in key areas in electronics, optics, and photonics identified in several seminal reports from the National Academies and other groups, including the one from the National Science and Technology Council Fast Track Action Committee co-chaired by NIST that produced an April 2014 report Building a Brighter Future with Optics and Photonics. Specifically, NIST will assist industry by developing sensors and methods for diagnostics and process control in advanced manufacturing.”

Similar program changes in NIST’s Industrial Technology Services are described pertaining to the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia, Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.

Total National Institute of Standards and Technology:
The FY 2015 appropriation was $863.9 million
The FY 2016 request is $1,119.7 million, an increase of $255.8 million or 29.6 percent

Within NIST are the following three programs:

Scientific and Technical Research and Services:
The FY 2015 appropriation was $675.5 million
The FY 2016 request is $754.7 million, an increase of $79.2 million or 11.7 percent

Industrial Technology Services:
The FY 2015 appropriation was $138.1 million
The FY 2016 request is $306.0, an increase of $167.9 million or 121.6 percent

Construction of Research Facilities:
The FY 2015 appropriation was $50.3 million
The FY 2016 request is $59.0 million, an increase of $8.7 million or 17.3 percent