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Category: STEM Education

Report for House Commerce-Justice-Science Approps Bill Now Available

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In preparation for its markup tomorrow morning, the House Appropriations Committee has released the report that accompanies the FY2027 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Bill.  The report includes details on funding levels provided to the agencies.  The report is available here.

NSF

NSF would be funded at $7.0 billion under this bill, a decrease of $1.75 billion below the current level.

The Research and Related Activities account would be funded at $6.44 billion, a decrease of $736 million.

The Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction would receive $172.95 million, which is $78.1 million below the current level.

Although the entire National Science Board has been dismissed, the bill appropriates $3.05 million to the board.

NOAA

The bill appropriates a total of $5.85 billion to NOAA, a cut of $319.8 million.

Within NOAA, activities funded by the Operations, Research, and Facilities account would see a total of $4.69 billion, of which $4.01 billion would be from direct appropriations and $659 million would be from a transfer of funds from the ‘‘Promote and Develop Fishery Products and Research Pertaining to American Fisheries’’ Fund and $28 million from prior year funds.

OAR would be funded at $580.2 million overall.  This amount includes $92.5 million for Climate CIs and Labs and $20 million for the RISA program.  Sea Grant and Sea Grant Aquaculture would be level funded at $80 million and $14 million, respectively.

As part of the National Ocean Service, the Regional IOOS Observations network would be funded at $56 million.

NASA

NASA would be level funded at $24.44 billion.

The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) would be funded at $6 billion, a cut of $1.25 billion.  Within SMD, Earth Science would be funded at $1.325 billion while Planetary Science would see a total of $2.5 billion.  Astrophysics and Heliophysics would receive $1.485 billion and $625 million, respectively.  Biological and Physical Sciences would see a total of $65 million.

The bill proposes to fund the Space Tech Directorate at $913 million, a cut of $7.5 million, while Aeronautics would be appropriated a total of $850 million, a cut of $85 million.

The Space Grant Program would be level funded at $58 million.

The full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the bill tomorrow morning. The Senate has yet to take any action on its version.

WH Launches Genesis Mission for AI

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On November 24, President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled Launching the Genesis Mission, which establishes a coordinated national effort to unleash a new age of AI‑accelerated innovation and discovery.

    • Full text can be found here
    • The Fact Sheet can be found here
    • An additional article from the White House can be found here

Some highlights:

    • The EO launches the Genesis Mission to transform the use of AI in how scientific research is conducted and accelerate the speed of scientific discovery.
    • The Secretary of Energy will leverage the National Labs to create a cooperative research system, focusing on computing power and data.
    • DOE will create a closed-loop AI experimentation platform to integrate supercomputers and data assets to generate a foundation model as well as power robotic laboratories.
    • The Secretary of Energy will establish and operate the American Science and Security Platform to serve as the infrastructure for the Mission.
    • The Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (Kratsios), will coordinate the national initiative and integrate data and infrastructure from across the government.
    • The Asst. to the President for S&T is also tasked with coordinating with NSF, NIST, NIH and other federal agencies.
    • The Secretary of Energy, Assistant to the President for S&T, and the Special Advisor for AI & Crypto (Sacks) will collaborate with academia and the private sector to support the Mission.
    • The EO also outlines focus areas to be addressed by the Mission:
      • biotechnology, critical materials, nuclear fission and fusion energy, space exploration, quantum information science, and semiconductors and microelectronics.
    • The EO also directs the Secretary of Energy to share a list with the Asst. to the President for S&T of at least 20 science and technology challenges of national importance that the Secretary assesses to have potential to be addressed through the Mission.

Trump Administration Releases FY27 Research Priorities Document

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On Thursday, the Trump Administration released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Administration Research and Development Budget Priorities and Cross-Cutting Actions Document. The document, signed by OMB Director Russ Vought and OSTP Director Michael Krastios, outlines the administration’s research priorities, describing its mission to align the government’s “role in the S&T enterprise to once again drive R&D that is bold, mission-driven, and unapologetically in service of the American people.”

Vought and Krastios list 5 top administration priorities in the coming fiscal year. The priorities are to:

  1. Ensure Unrivaled American Leadership in Critical and Emergin Technologies
  2. Unleash American Energy Dominance and Explore New Frontiers
  3. Strengthen American Security
  4. Strengthen and Safeguard American Health and Biotechnology
  5. Assure America’s Continued Space Dominance

The memorandum also describes the administration’s intent to undertake a number of crosscutting actions to “usher in the Golden Age of American Innovation.” These include:

  1. Implementing and Supporting Gold Standard Science
  2. Building the S&T Workforce of the Future
  3. Expanding and Making Accessible World-Class Research Infrastructure
  4. Revitalizing and Strengthening America’s S&T Ecosystem
  5. Focusing on High-Value Research Efforts.

Specifics regarding each priority can be found in the document linked above.

 

 

 

 

UW Hosts NSF Director & Rep. DelBene for “Opportunity Everywhere” Forum

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This week, the UW hosted the National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Panchanathan, Representative DelBene, and higher education leaders from across the state for the CHIPS and Science “Opportunity Everywhere” Forum. The forum brought together researchers, university leaders and students to discuss how Washington will be competing for Chips and Science funds, including plans to bring chip manufacturing to the U.S., train the workforce, and expand Washington’s leadership in AI and quantum.

To kick off the day, Director Panchanathan met with young UW faculty followed by an AI and machine learning roundtable to discuss recent research developments. The group then made their way to tour the Rachel Carson research vessel where they discussed marine science research made possible through NSF and NOAA funding while onboard. Washington Representative DelBene, staff from Senator Cantwell’s office, as well as leaders from Washington State University, Bellevue College, Central Washington University, Western Washington University and several community and technical colleges joined later in the day for important discussions around the future of CHIPS funding followed by a tour of the UW’s quantum facilities. Director Panchanathan concluded the day with a discussion about diversity in STEM, moderated by UW’s Dean of Engineering Nancy Allbritton. The UW looks forward to continuing our partnership with the federal government to accelerate transformative scientific research.

Read more about the forum here and here.

 

OSTP Releases Guidance for U.S. Scientific Research Security That Preserves International Collaboration

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Today the National Science and Technology Council, Joint Committee on the Research Environment (JCORE), released guidance for Federal departments and agencies on implementing National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33) on National Security Strategy for U.S. Government-Supported Research and Development.

The guidance addresses the below key elements of NSPM-33:

1) disclosure requirements and standardization;

2) digital persistent identifiers;

3) consequences for violation of disclosure requirements;

4) information sharing; and

5) research security programs.

As a next step, Dr. Eric Lander, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, is directing agencies to develop model grant applications and instructions within 120 days that can be used by any funding agency.

In a press statement, Dr. Lander said “the implementation guidance reflects the principles I laid out in August: to protect America’s security and openness, to be clear so that well-intentioned researchers can easily and properly comply, and to ensure that policies do not fuel xenophobia or prejudice.”

You can read the full guidance here.