| Chemistry
is a central science that seeks to understand the composition and structure of
different substances and their properties and reactions. Because an
understanding of chemistry is often required for federal agencies to fulfill
their missions, support for chemical research is found throughout many
government programs. In the current FY 2006 budget proposal:
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Support for chemistry would increase at the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) through significant increased funding of the intramural
research and development programs;
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Support for chemistry at the National Science Foundation (NSF) would increase
slightly but grant success rates are expected to drop;
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Support for chemistry at the Department of Energy (DOE) would see moderate
increases in Administration priority areas such as hydrogen energy research
and climate change initiatives;
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Support for chemistry at the Department of Defense (DOD) would likely
decrease with proposed cuts in basic and applied research;
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Support for chemistry at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would
increase slightly with proposed increases at the National Institute of
General Medical Sciences (NIGMS);
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Construction begins on the Linac Coherent Light Source and four NanoScale
Science Research Centers will begin operations. These facilities will
enable world-class research in emerging chemical fields.
Scientists in academic, government, and industry laboratories
perform federally funded chemical research. The results of this research
are utilized by government and leveraged by industry to develop various
products and services that improve quality of life and help maintain our
economic strength. Among a variety of benefits, successes in chemistry
have led to effective health and pharmaceutical products, the growth and
safety of our nation’s food and water supply, the expansion and improvement
of our energy sources, new materials for the electronics and information
industries, and key technologies for national defense.
The federal government has a particularly important role in
the basic chemical sciences performed largely at the university level.
It is at this level and to a large extent with these funds that the nation’s
future chemical scientists and engineers are trained. Thus, continued
federal investment in the chemical sciences is necessary in order to benefit
from future chemical advances.
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Within
NSF, the Chemistry Division of the Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS)
Directorate supports approximately one-half of the Foundation’s chemistry
research. Support for chemistry research can also be found in other NSF
divisions including the Materials Research and Physics Division, the Molecular
and Cellular Biosciences Division, the Atmospheric Sciences and Earth
Sciences Divisions, the Advanced Computational Research Division, and
the Chemical and Transport Systems Division.
The
MPS Chemistry Division supports chemical research across a wide spectrum
of topics, whereas other NSF divisions support chemistry as it assists
in the advancement of divisional objectives. The Chemistry Division provides
about 38 percent of the federal government’s support for academic chemistry
research.
Under
the proposed FY 2006 budget, the chemistry budget would increase by 1.1
percent from the enacted 2005 budget, bringing its budget to $181 million
(see Table II-7). This modest increase would
not offset the increase in award size due to inflation. Thus, in combination
with increased proposal submissions, the grant success rate is expected
to drop slightly in the coming fiscal year.
In
October 2004, the National Science Foundation announced elimination of
mandatory cost-sharing requirements for some programs, such as large centers
and major instrumentation programs. The policy stated that universities
had to come up with funding to supplement an NSF award and, in some cases,
match the NSF award. This policy change allows smaller institutions to
enter the competition but will also increase the number of competitors
and grant size. Grant success rate in the instrumentation program is expected
to drop from nearly 40 percent to about 30 percent as a result of this
new policy. (See Chapter 7 for more on the NSF
budget.) Department of Defense (DOD)
DOD
supports military-relevant chemical research through the Army, Navy, and
Air Force research organizations and through defense-wide research agencies
such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Basic research
funding, referred to as “6.1,” is allocated for both intramural and extramural
programs.
Chemistry
is important in many areas of basic research at DOD. For example, the
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) conducts programs in molecular
dynamics, theoretical and polymer chemistry, and surface science. These
efforts serve the needs of the Air Force for new lightweight materials,
better understanding of atmospheric processes, more energetic and efficient
propellants, improved corrosion prevention capabilities, and the development
of improved electro-optic technologies.
The
development of chemical and biological defense technologies has been a
priority in the military. Research in chemistry is essential in this effort,
such as for the discovery of new countermeasures and improved detection
capabilities. The FY 2006 budget would decrease DOD basic research (“6.1”)
and applied research (“6.2”), which would likely decrease chemical research.
(For more on DOD, see Chapter 6.)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
At
EPA, the Office of Research and Development (ORD) supports most of the
fundamental research that underpins the Agency’s efforts to protect public
health and the environment. Because chemistry plays a central role in
much of EPA’s decision-making processes and in solving the nation’s environmental
problems, ORD engages in a great deal of chemical research. These efforts
include addressing concerns about potentially harmful components of air,
water, and food and the development of green chemistry and engineering
approaches for less environmentally damaging processes and materials.
The
Administration has proposed $761 million for the overall EPA Science &
Technology (S&T) account, an increase of $17 million over the enacted
2005 level (see Table II-17). The EPA’s S&T
account supports laboratories and programs that contribute, in many cases,
to multiple goals and objectives across the whole of EPA. The President’s
budget request would cut 2 percent from extramural research funded through
the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, including elimination of
all extramural research on pollution prevention. This would have detrimental
implications for research in the green chemistry field. (For more on the
EPA budget, see Chapter 13.)
Department of Energy (DOE)
DOE
supports fundamental research in the chemical sciences that seeks to improve
the cost effectiveness and environmental impact of the production and
consumption of energy and energy-related products. DOE, through the Office
of Science, is the sole supporter of heavy-element chemistry and the primary
supporter of homogenous and heterogeneous catalysis, photochemistry, radiation
chemistry, separations and analysis and gas-phased chemical dynamics.
Most chemistry research at DOE is supported through two Office of Science
programs: Basic Energy Sciences (BES) and Biological and Environmental
Research (BER). The Administration proposes a $3.5 billion budget for
the Office of Science, a 3.8 percent decrease. Within the proposed budget,
BES would receive an increase of 3.7 percent, while BER would experience
reduction of 21.7 percent (see Table II-11).
Especially
exciting for chemistry will be the start of construction for the Linac
Coherent Light Source, a world-class facility based at Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center, which will provide laser-like radiation in the x-ray
region of the spectrum when it becomes operational in 2009. This facility
will provide 10 billion times the brightness of current coherent light
sources, giving insight as never before into catalysis, chemical processes,
protein folding, and molecular assembly. Additionally, four NanoScale
Science Research Centers (NSRCs) will begin operations at Oak Ridge, Lawrence Berkeley, Sandia, and Argonne National Labs.
The NSRCs are user facilities for the synthesis, processing, fabrication,
and analysis of materials at the nanoscale level. They are designed to
enable the nanoscale revolution by situating multiple research disciplines,
multiple techniques, and a wide variety of state-of-the-art instrumentation
in one building. (For more on NSRCs, see Chapter
24.)
The
following priorities would be increased in the FY 2006 Office of Science
budget: Hydrogen energy research ($32.5 million, up 11.4 percent), Genomics
($94.7 million, up 11.4 percent), and Climate Change initiatives ($132
million, up 2.8 percent). The following
programs would be cut: Advanced Scientific Computing Research ($207 million,
down 10.9 percent), and Workforce Development for teachers and scientists
($7.2 million, down 6.5 percent).
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
The
FY 2006 budget request for NIH is $28.7 billion, a 0.5 percent increase
over the FY 2005 enacted level (see Table II-9).
As the principal supporter of biomedical research in the United States, NIH is a significant source of new discoveries that
are leading to longer, healthier lives. The chemical sciences play a critical
enabling role in these efforts, and accordingly NIH supports research
in the chemical sciences to further the molecular understanding of disease
and illness and to develop new techniques to advance biomedical research.
Increasingly,
the ability to respond to new health challenges, such as anthrax and drug-resistant
forms of tuberculosis, and to combat enduring afflictions such as diabetes,
cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease, relies on an understanding of human and
diseases systems at molecular levels. Much of this understanding has accumulated
through years of investigation in basic chemical and biological phenomena
through the support of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences
(NIGMS) and the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR).
NIGMS
provides non-disease-specific basic research and training that complement
advances in other NIH institutes. NIGMS is the largest single source of
chemistry funding within NIH, traditionally providing approximately two-thirds
of NIH’s support for academic research in chemistry and one-third of its
support in biochemistry. Within NIGMS, the Division of Pharmacology, Physiology,
& Biological Chemistry carries out vital chemical research into both
pharmacology and the chemistry of life. The Administration requests $2.0
billion for NIGMS, a 0.6 percent increase (see Table
II-9).
NCRR
supports the state-of-the-art research infrastructure to provide high-quality
biomedical research. Of particular importance to chemical research is
the Shared Instrumentation Grants (SIG) program, which provides the necessary
instrumentation to pursue research opportunities. The FY 2006 budget proposes
a 1.3 percent reduction, bringing NCRR’s budget to $1.1 billion, and would
negatively impact NCRR’s ability to support research infrastructure. (For
more on NIH, see Chapter 8.)
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
NIST,
through its intramural and extramural programs, delivers the underlying
technological capabilities for areas of chemical processing and research,
from nanotrace analyses and clinical testing to synthesis and catalysis.
The Administration’s budget would reduce the NIST budget in FY 2006 by
23.9 percent to $532 million (see Table II-14).
Researchers
at NIST’s Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory (CSTL) focus, in
part, on the research and technology needs of the U.S. chemical industry. CSTL is part of the larger NIST laboratories
program. NIST laboratories provide impartial expertise, test methods,
and best-in-the-world calibration services that maximize efficiency, promote
trade, and ensure confidence in the growing number of precision measurements
needed for a variety of sectors including electronics, automotive, aerospace,
food processing, and health care. In addition, the laboratories produce
standard reference materials and data needed to achieve lower detection
limits, and improve the quality, productivity, and efficiency of chemical
measurements. The laboratories also play an integral role in nanotechnology
by developing measurements and standards for nanodevices, nanomagnetics,
and nanocharacterizations. The strong $421 million FY 2006 request for
the intramural laboratory research and development program represents
a 12.9 percent increase over FY 2005 and would address critical infrastructure
and national security needs.
The
administration’s decision to eliminate funding for the Advance Technology
Program (ATP) will hamper research in a variety of chemically related
high-risk technologies. This is the third consecutive year the White House
has proposed ending ATP. (For more on ATP and NIST, see Chapter
13.)
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