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AAAS CEO Alan Leshner Urges
Balance in Federal R&D Funding
"We cannot afford a `taking-turns' approach to science funding in this country,' Alan I. Leshner, head of the world's largest general scientific organization said today, in testimony before U.S. policy-makers. "Because of their inter-connectedness, we need to find ways to strengthen all fields of research at the same time."
The U.S. Administration's budget request for federal R&D in Fiscal Year 2003 proposes an increase of $8.9 billion compared with FY 2002--but, the funds would be distributed only to two agencies--the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The request leaves all other R&D funding agencies combined with barely the same amount as in FY 2002, said Leshner, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), publisher of the journal, Science.
Leshner was among a panel of distinguished speakers invited to testify at the hearing, among them, Newt Gingrich; John Marburger of the Office of Science & Technology Policy; and Rita Colwell of the National Science Foundation.
Overall, the total federal R&D request for FY 2003 would hit a record $112 billion. The $8.9 billion increase over FY 2002 would give $5.2 billion to the DOD, and $3.7 billion to NIH.
Non-defense-related R&D would increase by 7.2 percent for FY 2003. Yet, when increases to the NIH are excluded, non-defense R&D would actually fall by 0.2 percent, according to AAAS analysis. (See http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/rd/rdwwwpg.htm.)
Proposed increases would provide the final installment of a plan to double the NIH budget in five years, allowing the agency to support 56 percent of all federal R&D support for FY 2003.
—Ginger Pinholster
22 May 2002
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