Highlights
- The National Science Foundation (NSF) enjoys a budget increase in FY
2004, but falls well short of a five-year doubling plan signed into law in
December 2002. The total NSF budget is $5.6 billion in FY 2004, up 5.0 percent
but $1 billion short of the $6.6 billion authorized for FY 2004.
- NSF’s R&D activities receive $4.1 billion, an increase of 4.7 percent
(see Table).
- The NSF research
directorates receive increases between 3 and 7 percent.
Nearly
four months after the start of FY 2004, Congress gave final approval
on January 22 to an omnibus appropriations bill (HR 2673) that sets
final funding levels for NSF and several other R&D funding agencies.
The House approved the omnibus bill on December 8, but the Senate delayed
final action until January 22; President Bush is expected to sign the
bill into law by the end of January. The FY 2004 omnibus bill provides $5.6 billion
in FY 2004 for the National Science Foundation (NSF), an increase of 5.0 percent or $268 million over FY 2003 (see Table)
that adds $97 million to the President’s request. (Note: the figures
in the Table are adjusted to reflect an across-the-board cut of 0.59
percent included in the omnibus bill).
An NSF authorization
bill calling for a doubling of the NSF budget between FY 2002 and FY
2007 was signed into law in December 2002, but the FY 2004 appropriation
falls $1 billion short of the authorized $6.6 billion funding level
for FY 2004.
NSF’s R&D funding, which excludes NSF’s education and training activities
and overhead costs, totals $4.1 billion in the omnibus, an increase
of 4.7 percent or $186 million (see Table).
The Research and Related Activities (R&RA) account, which funds most
of NSF’s R&D, receives $4.3 billion, 4.8 percent or $195 million
more than FY 2003. The research
directorates receive increases between 3 and 7 percent, in contrast
to the President’s request which would have resulted in cuts to some
of the directorates. The Biological Sciences (BIO) directorate would
have seen its budget fall 1.6 percent in the request, but the omnibus
bill allows funding to increase 3.0 percent to $589 million, including
$90 million specifically for the plant genome research program (up from
$84 million).
Congress emphasizes NSF support of the physical sciences, with the
Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) receiving a
5.7 percent boost to $1.1 billion. Within the physical sciences and
engineering, Congress boosts funding of nanotechnology research to $255
million for NSF’s contribution to the multi-agency National Nanotechnology
Initiative (NNI), $34 million more than last year. For the computer
sciences, the 4.7 percent boost for the Computer and Information Science
and Engineering (CISE) directorate to $606 million allows for $225 million
in IT Research, the core program of the multi-agency Networking and
Information Technology R&D initiative, up from $209 million last
year. The Engineering Directorate (ENG), also playing a major role in
the NNI and IT, receives $558 million (up 5.1 percent).
Congress expands NSF’s support for universities’ research instrumentation
needs, with an emphasis on minority-serving institutions (MSIs).
NSF receives $110 million for the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI)
program (within Integrative Activities), a $20 million boost to the
request. The final bill eliminates Senate language that would have allocated
$30 million of the MRI total specifically for instrumentation needs
at MSIs, but leaves in language encouraging NSF to dedicate as much
of the $20 million add-on to the request as possible to MSIs. The MRI
program awards competitive grants to universities and colleges to purchase
scientific and engineering equipment and instrumentation to be used
for research and training.
Funding for the
Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction
(MREFC) account, which funds construction of large-scale scientific
facilities, is $155 million in FY 2004, similar to last year’s funding
level but well below the $202 million request. The omnibus bill funds
only five of the seven requested projects, and adds an extra year of
funding for an old project. Because of budget constraints, Congress
declined to fund two projects (the High-Performance Instrumented Airborne
Platform (HIAPER) and the National Ecological Observatories Network),
but adds an extra year for Terascale Computing Systems. The final bill
does not fund two future projects that the House proposed to start a
year early.
NSF’s Education and Human Resources (EHR) programs receive $939 million,
4.0 percent above FY 2003. The heart of the Administration’s request
was $200 million for the third year of a Math
and Science Partnerships (MSP) program to encourage academic institutions
and schools to work together to improve math and science education.
Congress trims the request to $140 million, but the same omnibus bill
provides $150 million for the Department of Education’s share of this
two-agency program, up dramatically from a $13 million request. Combined,
the MSP programs receive $290 million in FY 2004, up from $228 million
in FY 2003.
Figure 1. (click
on the image to view or download a color, full-page PDF version of the
chart)
The omnibus bill provides $95 million
for the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR),
$5 million more than the FY 2003 level. EPSCOR assists research institutions
and states that have traditionally been underrepresented in federal
R&D funding. Also benefiting from congressional generosity is the
'tech talent' program to increase the numbers of US citizens pursuring
undergraduate math and science degrees. Started last year, the program's
budget is $25 million in FY 2004, a dramatic expansion from just $2
million last year.
The FY 2004 appropriation continues the recent trend of increases for
NSF. Figure 1 shows the recent history of NSF's budget for R&D and
compares the final appropriated budgets with the requests. The line
shows that NSF R&D grew steadily in the 1980s and until FY 1995,
but then stagnated and even declined because of severe budget pressures
in the mid-1990s as the federal government restrained discretionary
spending to achieve a balanced budget. But the chart also shows that
NSF's R&D investment resumed its long-term growth trend after FY
1998, when the government entered a (now-ended) age of surpluses. The
FY 2004 increase brings NSF R&D to an all-time high.
Figure 2. (click
on the image to view or download a color, full-page PDF version of the
chart)
NSF is the only
federal agency with responsibility for research in all major science
and engineering fields. As shown in Figure 2, NSF has a balanced
research portfolio covering the breadth of science and engineering.
In most fields, NSF is the largest or second-largest source of federal
funding.
Figure 3. (click
on the image to view or download a color, full-page PDF version of the
chart)
The evenly distributed FY 2004
increase should benefit NSF support for most science and engineering
disciplines. In the past, NSF has distributed its increases unevenly depending
on then-current research priorities, as shown in Figure 3. In particular, NSF
support for computer sciences research has increased dramatically over the past
decade, as fundamental IT research has grown as a national priority. NSF
support of engineering research has also grown substantially over the last
decade. But in many disciplines, NSF support is only now recovering from the
lean years of the mid-1990s when NSF support for the physical sciences,
environmental sciences, the non-medical life sciences, and mathematics actually
fell. The FY 2004 budget should allow NSF support for all these disciplines to
increase faster than the rate of inflation.
Figure 4. (click
on the image to view or download a color, full-page PDF version of the
chart)
NSF’s longstanding leadership role
in federal support of basic research continues to have a big impact on the
nation’s colleges and universities. NSF sends 81 percent of its R&D support
to colleges and universities (see Figure 4), by far the highest ratio of any
R&D funding agency. NSF is the second-largest federal supporter of academic
R&D, behind the NIH, and dominates federal support in most non-biomedical
fields.
Next Steps
The House approved
the omnibus bill on December 8, and the Senate gave final approval on
January 22. Until a final budget is signed, NSF is operating at last
year's funding levels under a continuing resolution extending through
January 31; President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law by
then.
(This analysis is one of a series
of AAAS R&D Funding Updates on the FY 2004 congressional appropriations
process. The complete series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including
continually updated analyses of R&D in FY 2004 appropriations, is
available on the AAAS R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd)
in the “FY 2004 R&D” or the “What’s
New” sections.)
- December 9, 2003 (revised January 23)
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607; -6600
www.aaas.org/spp/rd
