$9.6
billion
Proposed
2013 NASA
R&d budget
22
percent
Proposed cut for
NASA planetary
science program
Nondefense R&D gets boost in
White House budget proposal
In tough times, applied research would grow substantially
By Janet Raloff
Research into climate change and
advanced manufacturing will see substantially increased federal support
next year if President Obama gets his
way, as will education in the STEM
fields — science, technology, education and mathematics. The president’s
budget blueprint for fiscal year 2013,
unveiled February 13, calls for slight
increases across most research spending categories. But in some areas, the
recommended spending boosts would
vastly outpace inflation.
Proposed spending on research and
development generally, both civilian and
defense, would total $140.8 billion for
fiscal year 2013. That’s about the same as
this year’s $138.9 billion after account-
ing for estimated inflation of 1. 4 percent.
(All subsequent funding changes in this
article have been adjusted to account
for this projected inflation.) But the
nondefense portion of that total would
rise nearly $3.1 billion to $64.9 billion, a
net increase of 3. 5 percent.
Proposed FY 2013 federal R&D budget spending
(dollar values in millions with percent changes from FY 2012 adjusted for projected 1. 4 percent inflation)
U.S. agency or
department
FY 2011
actual
FY 2012
estimate
FY 2013
proposed
Percent
change
defense 77,500 72,739 71,204 − 3. 5
NIH (and other HHS R&d) 31,186 31,153 31,400 −0.6
Energy 10,673 11,019 11,903 6. 5
NASA 9,099 9,399 9,602 0.7
NSF 5,486 5,680 5,904 2. 5
uSdA 2,135 2,331 2,297 − 2. 8
Commerce 1,275 1,258 2,573 101.7
Interior 757 796 854 5. 8
EPA 584 568 580 0.7
Education 362 392 398 0.1
Allothers† 3,657 3,534 4,105 14. 6
Total 142,714* 138,869* 140,820* 0.005*
*Figures reflect rounding; †Includes departments of transportation, Homeland
Increase decrease
t. dubÉ
Security, Veterans Affairs, the Smithsonian Institution and others
SOuRCE: ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVES: FISCAL YEAR 2013 BUDGE T OF THE U.S. GOVERNMEN T, tAbLE 22-1, P. 370, FEbRuARY 13, 2012
Obama wants more than $500 million in additional funding for research
into renewable energy and energy efficiency, a smaller hike than one turned
down by Congress last year. Much of this
new money would go to cutting the costs
of electric vehicles, geothermal energy
and biomass fuels. Funding for solar and
wind energy would sag slightly.
The multiagency Global Change
Research Program’s budget would
increase more than 4 percent, funding
climate research at agencies including NASA (at $1.47 billion), the Energy
Department (at $230 million) and the
Commerce Department (at roughly
$340 million).
During a press briefing, White House
science adviser John Holdren emphasized the president’s commitment to
revitalizing the nation’s manufacturing
enterprise. The Obama administration
wants to turn around years of flagging
investments by directing $2.2 billion in
federal dollars into this area — a whopping 17. 6 percent increase over FY 2012.
Much of that funding would go to the
Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, which
would see its R&D allocation more than
triple under the White House proposal.
The former Bureau of Standards would
be the lead agency in the $1 billion
National Network for Manufacturing and Innovation, which would fund
advanced manufacturing research.
“As soon as the administration
focused on innovation, the role that
R&D plays in promoting economic
growth and prosperity, it immediately
became clear we were eventually going
to be talking about manufacturing,” says
NIST director Patrick Gallagher. With
more than two-thirds of all engineers
outside universities and the federal
government employed by manufactur-ing-based firms, this sector “supports
the lion’s share of private sector investments in research and development,”
he notes. — With additional reporting by
Science News staff
www.sciencenews.org
March 10, 2012 | SCIENCE NEWS | 19
