AAAS Policy Alert -- January 25, 2012

IN THIS ISSUE

BUDGET NEWS

Administration Delays FY 2013 Budget Release by One Week. On Jan. 23 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) notified reporters that the President's proposed budget would be released on Monday, Feb. 13, one week after the Feb. 6 date required by law. The reason for the delay is not yet clear, but according to one unnamed source, the delay is to allow the Administration to "finalize technical and programmatic decisions" related to the budget. The release of last year's budget was also delayed by one week. Both the Chairman of the House Budget Committee and the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee have criticized the decision.

At the same time, the White House has been warning constituents to prepare for substantial cuts in discretionary spending, driven largely by last year's debt ceiling deal, the Budget Control Act. That agreement caps FY 2013 discretionary spending at $1.047 trillion, significantly less than the $1.242 trillion requested in FY 2012. Some have speculated that defense R&D could continue to be a target for cuts as it was last year. According to AAAS analysis, defense R&D was reduced by more than $2 billion, accounting for the lion's share of federal R&D cuts in FY 2012. Elsewhere, Paul Ryan, House Budget Committee Chairman, has confirmed his intention to pass a deficit-cutting budget resolution sometime in March. The budget resolution is intended to set overall spending levels for Congress, although in many years no such resolution is passed.

NSF Science & Engineering Indicators 2012: US R&D Funding Still Leads the World, But East Asia Making Clear Progress. Data in the recent National Science Board report Science & Engineering Indicators 2012, released last week, illustrate a pair of clear trends in global research investment. The first is the resilience of the American research enterprise overall. According to the NSF data, total U.S. R&D - including public and private - amounted to $400 billion in 2009. This total represents a decline from 2008, driven by the economic recession, but it has recovered to a level $23 billion over 2007. Also, R&D investment by business and government has grown since 2004 by an average of 5.8%, compared to growth of 3.3% for the economy as a whole. And in aggregate dollars, the United States funds more than twice as much R&D as second-place China.

The second clear trend is the rise of Asia. While the United States still ranks far ahead of China in R&D spending, the latter nation has experienced explosive R&D growth in recent years, averaging around 20% annually. Growth in China and South Korea have helped the East/Southeast Asia region to account for 29% of global R&D expenditures, compared to 31% for the US and 23% for the EU. Asia has gained substantially in this metric over the past decade, while the U.S. and Europe have slipped somewhat. Asia's growth trend has been similarly confirmed by data on R&D expenditures as a share of GDP, where South Korea has joined Japan and Taiwan as high R&D funders in relation to their overall economies, and China has similarly gained substantially. All in all, R&D funding remains heavily concentrated among a few countries, with the seven largest global funders accounting for 71% of the global total.

OMB Confirms No Further Cuts Necessary to Meet FY 2012 Spending Caps. In its most recent sequestration report issued on Jan. 18, OMB found that no further cuts in discretionary spending will be necessary this year to achieve the spending caps established in the Budget Control Act. The discretionary spending cap for FY 2012 was set at $1.043 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office had similarly estimated on Jan. 12 that no further spending cuts would be necessary, but only OMB has the authority to make the final determination.

Data and analyses of the final figures for R&D in FY 2012 are available at the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program Website.

OTHER CONGRESSIONAL NEWS

AAAS Statement on Research Works Act. On Jan. 18 AAAS issued a statement reaffirming its support for the NIH public access policy and clarifying that it does not support the Research Works Act (H.R. 3699, reported in the 1/19/12 Policy Alert). AAAS CEO Alan Leshner stated, "We believe the current NIH public access policy provides an important mechanism for ensuring that the public has access to biomedical research findings."

Retirements from House Are Mounting. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) announced that she is retiring from her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives this week in order to focus full-time on her recovery from a gunshot wound suffered a year ago. Arizona Governor Janice Brewer, according to state law, has 72 hours from the day a seat is officially vacated to announce the date for a special election to replace Giffords, who was Ranking Minority Member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee's Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. According to election analysts, this brings the total number of House retirements to 31 incumbents (18 Democrats, 13 Republicans), the largest number in a general election since 1996. Many retirements are due to state redistricting.

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

State of the Union Address, Jan. 24. The President gave his State of the Union Address last night and, as in past years, spoke on the importance of investing in basic research and called on Congress not to cut federal funding for research. "Innovation also demands basic research. Today, the discoveries taking place in our federally financed labs and universities could lead to new treatments that kill cancer cells but leave healthy ones untouched. New lightweight vests for cops and soldiers that can stop any bullet. Don't gut these investments in our budget. Don't let other countries win the race for the future. Support the same kind of research and innovation that led to the computer chip and the Internet; to new American jobs and new American industries." He also emphasized research in renewable energy as a particular area for future innovation and announced that the Department of Defense will launch an initiative to shift the Navy toward clean energy sources.

NIH News. The official success rate for NIH research project grants (that is, the number of funded grants relative to reviewed applications) in FY 2011 was 18%, a record low. For FY 2012, NIH has issued its fiscal policy for grant awards and a notice about the reduced salary cap for extramural awards written into the FY12 appropriations bill (from a maximum of $199,700 to $179,700, as reported in the 1/11/12 Policy Alert). Meanwhile, NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute is planning to reorganize from its current three divisions to seven -- one for intramural research, four for extramural research, and two devoted to policy and management.

Public Meeting of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues will hold a public meeting in San Francisco on February 2-3 regarding medical countermeasures for children, whole genome sequencing, and neuroethics. The meeting will be webcast at www.bioethics.gov . An archive of the webcast and transcripts will be available after the meeting.

DOE Reports Assess Energy Productivity of Water Power Resources. According to two reports recently released by the Department of Energy (DOE), water power resources could potentially provide up to 15% of the nation's electrical supply by 2030. The wave and tidal assessments in Mapping and Assessment of the United States Ocean Wave Energy Resource (PDF file) and Assessment of Energy Production Potential from Tidal Streams in the United States (PDF file) analyze the maximum kinetic energy available from off-shore waves and tides and, according to a DOE press release, "represent the most rigorous analysis undertaken to date to accurately define the magnitude and location of America's ocean energy resources." To complement these studies, resource assessments of ocean currents and thermal gradients likely will be released by the DOE this year, and DOE's Water Power Program is currently carrying out techno-economic assessments and technology demonstration projects.

DOE Seeks Comments on Announcement for Developing Small Modular Nuclear Reactors. The Department of Energy has released a draft Funding Opportunity Announcement for a Cost-Shared Industry Partnership Program for small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). The SMR program is a near-term, multi-year initiative focused on the completion of design certification and licensing activities for SMR technologies to be developed and deployed in the United States. It is anticipated that up to two financial assistance agreements for SMR certification and licensing may eventually be awarded for a total cost of $904 million. Comments are due by Feb. 17, after which the announcement will be finalized and the competition opened.

NASA Announces New Open Source Software Website. NASA has launched a new website to expand the agency's open source software development. The site will serve to showcase existing projects, provide a forum for discussing projects and processes, and guide internal and external groups in open development, release, and contribution.

ELSEWHERE

Scientists Agree to Moratorium on Flu Research. The world's major researchers on the H5N1 avian flu virus have agreed (PDF file) to a 60-day moratorium on their work "to allow time for international discussion." The announcement comes after a request by the federal National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity that Science and Nature not publish certain aspects of papers under review involving certain mutations that can make the H5N1 virus more easily transmissible. The scientists involved "grudgingly" agreed , although the journals are exploring ways to make the relevant study details available to other researchers in the field. The World Health Organization will convene a meeting in late February to discuss the issues surrounding the case. The move hearkens back to a self-imposed moratorium by recombinant DNA researchers in 1975, leading to a meeting in Asilomar, CA, where scientists drafted guidelines for genetic engineering. Find details at Science's website, "Public Health, Biosecurity, and H5N1."
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Policy Group Reports Immigrants Play Key Roles in Top Venture-Backed Firms. A report by the National Foundation for American Policy (PDF file) has found that nearly half of America's 50 top private venture-backed companies have at least one foreign-born founder. More than 75% of the companies studied had immigrants in key positions in management or on product-development teams.

EC Report Confirms Central Role of Small-to-Medium Firms in New Job Creation. The European Commission has released a report (available here ) studying the impact of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on the labor market in the European Union from 2002 to 2010. The study found that SMEs, accounting for 67% of employment, were responsible for 85% of net new job creation. The study also shows that new firms (younger than five years) are responsible for an overwhelming majority of the new jobs.

People in the News. Marco Antônio Raupp, a Ph.D. mathematician and current head of the Brazilian Space Agency, has been named Brazil's new Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, replacing Aloizio Mercadente.

Archived issues of AAAS Policy Alert can be found at http://www.aaas.org/spp/policyalert.

Publisher: Alan I. Leshner
Editor: Steve Nelson
Contributors: Joanne Carney, Ed Derrick, Erin Heath, Matt Hourihan, Anne Poduska, Gretchen Seiler, Ric Weibl, Brad Wible, Katharine Zambon

NOTE: The AAAS Policy Alert is a newsletter provided to AAAS Members to inform them of developments in science and technology policy that may be of interest. Information in the Policy Alert is gathered from published news reports, unpublished documents, and personal communications. Although the information contained in this newsletter is regarded as reliable, it is provided only for the convenience and private use of our members. Comments and suggestions regarding the Policy Alert are welcome. Please write to alert@aaas.org.


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