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Category: NSF

Idea Floating for New Research-Funding Entity

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is considering a draft proposal for a new entity which would spend $100 billion over five years on research related to artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and 5G technology. The tentative name for the proposed organization is the “National Science and Technology Foundation”. It would be a subsidiary of the National Science Foundation and would work in concert with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). For context, NSF’s annual budget is currently $8.1 billion.

The idea comes from the interim report, published November 4th, from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which was a commission established through the FY2019 National Defense Authorization bill (P.L. 115-232).

The US is competing fiercely with Russia and China to be the global leader in artificial intelligence, so this organization would be closely tied to US national security.

The proposal is still in the earliest stages of development, and it has not been decided how the organization will be structured or if it will continue to operate after the initial five year period.

Read more about the proposal here.

Spending Details Now Available

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The Senate Appropriations Committee has made available the details of the spending bills it cleared yesterday.

The text of the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill is available here and a copy of the report is available here.

The committee has also posted the Interior spending measure and the accompanying report.

With respect to what is in the bills, the Senate CJS legislation would:

  • Fund the National Science Foundation at $8.32 billion, an increase of $242 million above the current level.
    • Within NSF, the Research and Related Activities Account would receive $6.77 billion, an increase of approximately $250 million above current levels.
    • Activities funded through the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction Account would be funded at $253 million, which is $42.5 million below the current level.  The committee funds the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope at the Administration-requested level.
    • Education and Human Resources would see a total of $937 million under this bill.
  • Fund NASA at $22.75 billion, $1.25 billion above the FY2019 level.
    • The Science Mission Directorate would be funded at $6.91 billion.
      • Within Science, the bill proposes to fund the various accounts in the following manner:
        • Earth Science:  $1.945 billion
        • Planetary Science:  $2.631 billion
        • Astrophysics:  $1.171 billion
          • $445.7 million for WFIRST
        • Heliophysics:  $735.0 million
      • Aeronautics:  $725.0 million
      • Space Technology:  $926.9 million
      • STEM Engagement:  $112.0 million
        • Space Grant:  $47.0 million

The Interior Appropriations Bill also funds a number of agencies, programs, and accounts of interest to UW as well.  For example, the committee-approved bill would fund the National Endowment for the Humanities at $157.0 million, $2 million above the current level.

In addition, the bill also funds, among other agencies and programs, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Within USGS, the report includes the following language with respect to the Climate Adaptation Science Centers:

The new Climate Adaption Science Center sub activity receives $44,488,000. The recommendation includes funding to maintain the fiscal year 2019 levels for the Centers. It is the Committee’s expectation that funding will be distributed according to the allocation methodology in previous years ensuring all Centers remain open and at current levels.

It also contains the following text with respect to the early earthquake warning system:

Natural Hazards.—The bill includes $170,838,000 for Natural Hazards programs. Within the Earthquake Hazards program, the Committee continues to support the multitude of regional earthquake initiatives, but is concerned about the budget structure for each network as it relates to operations, maintenance, and infrastructure; therefore, the Committee directs the Survey to report back within 90 days after enactment of this act with a breakdown of funding between the operations, maintenance, and infrastructure expenditures in 2018 and 2019 along with recommendations on how to better structure the funding for these initiatives. This recommendation provides funding to ensure all the regional networks receive 2019 base funding level for operations and maintenance, including earthquake early warning and the Central and Eastern USNetwork [CEUSN]. Within these amounts, the Committee directs that regional networks which recently acquired the USArray stations from the National Science Foundation receive $3,000,000 for the operations and maintenance as these networks work to incorporate and use all Earthscope data. On top of base operations and maintenance for each network, the recommendation includes $17,500,000 for equipment and infrastructure costs. The Committee is also concerned that the updates to the national seismic hazard maps do not consistently include all 50 States and directs the Survey to update these maps for all 50 States, not just the lower 48, and provides $2,000,000 for this effort.

The Committee is concerned about the lack of knowledge and real time instrumentation available for the Cascadia subduction zone; therefore, the Committee encourages the continued development of a system for Cascadia that will help prepare for and mitigate the negative human and economic impacts of a major seismic event.

The Cooperative Research Units, also funded by the USGS, would receive $18.4 million next year, the same amount as this year.

We will provide further details as the process moves forward.

Details of Senate CJS, Interior Bills Available

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Many more details contained in the Senate Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) and Interior Appropriations Bills are now available.  Both were approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday.

CJS Bill

The detailed report accompanying the bill is available here.

With respect to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Senate committee-passed bill would fund the agency as a whole at $8.07 billion and the individual directorates in the following manner:

  • Research and Related Activities– $6.56 billion ($6.33 billion in FY2018)
  • Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction– $249.3 million, including full funding for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope ($182.8 million in FY2018)
  • Education and Human Resources– $915.0 million ($902.0 million in FY2018)

The bill would fund NASA at $21.3 billion.  The agency is currently funded at $20.7 billion.

  • NASA Science would receive a total of $6.40 billion.  That amount would be divided up in the following manner:
    • Earth Science:  $1.93 billion
    • Planetary Science:  $2.20 billion
    • Astrophysics:  $1.24 billion, including $352 for WFIRST
    • Webb Telescope:  $304.6 million
    • Heliophysics:  $720.0 million
  • Office of Education— The bill proposes to restructure the current Office of Education to a new Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Opportunities account.  As part of the new account, the Space Grant Program would be funded at $44 million.

Within NOAA, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) would receive $508.3 million.  As part of OAR, the Climate Research Cooperative Institutes would be funded at $61.0 million.  The Competitive Research line within the Climate Research Program would be funded at $60 million.

The committee showed its support for the Sea Grant Program by allocating a $6-million increase for it.

The Integrated Ocean Observing System would be funded at $37.0 million under this bill.

Interior Bill

A number of agencies and programs of interest are also funded by the Interior Bill.  A copy of the report that details the directives regarding the spending levels in it is available here.

A program funded through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Cooperative Research Units would see a modest increase in the Senate bill.  The committee also included the following observation and directive about the program:

Committee notes that USGS Cooperative Research Units [CRU] have served as a cooperative network with Interior partners to improve and increase youth involvement in science and resources management. The Committee recognizes the value of these programs in building the workforce of tomorrow and strongly encourages the Survey to develop a plan and address open research positions at research institutions and fill open positions at CRUs as quickly as practicable to support the educational pipeline.

The Earthquake Early Warning system, also funded through the USGS, would be supported at $12.9 million in FY2019 while the Climate Adaptation Science Centers would be level-funded at $25.3 million.

 

 

Congress Continues to March Through Appropriations

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Both chambers of Congress continue their march through the FY2019 appropriations process.

The Senate Appropriations Committee took up and cleared its Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), Interior, and Legislative Branch bills earlier today, meaning that the committee has cleared seven of the 12 spending bills.  Some of the initial details about the CJS and Interior bills were posted yesterday.

In the House, the Defense spending measure was reported out by the Appropriations Committee yesterday and the Labor-HHS-Education bill is scheduled to be taken up by its subcommittee Friday morning.

House Defense Appropriations Bill 

  • Army:  Under this bill, the Army basic research (“6.1”) programs would be funded at $442.2 million while the Army applied research (“6.2”) programs would receive $1.32 billion.
  • Navy:  Navy 6.1 programs would be funded at $619.4 million while Navy 6.2 programs would be funded at $889.2 million.
  • Air Force:  The bill would fund Air Force 6.1 at $516.4 million and would support 6.2 programs at $1.38 billion.
  • Defense-wide:  Defense-wide 6.1 programs would be funded at $720.1 million while the defense-wide 6.2 account would receive $1.97 billion.

A copy of the detailed report for the bill is available here.

Subcommittee Labor-HHS-Education Bill

While the full details from the bill are not yet available, some of the contents of the measure are known.

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH):  Under this bill, NIH would receive an increase of $1.25 billion above the current level, to $38.3 billion
  • Pell Grants:  The maximum award would be maintained at $6,095.
  • TRIO and GEAR UP:  TRIO would be increased by $60 million and GEAR UP would be increased by $10 million.

We will share additional details as they become available.

Initial Details of Senate CJS, Interior Bills Available

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As noted yesterday, two of the Senate appropriations subcommittees approved the FY2019 Commerce-Justice-Science and Interior spending bills. While the detailed reports accompanying the bills are not yet available, some from the measures are known.

The CJS bill would fund some of the agencies in the following manner:

  • $8.1 billion for NSF, $301 million above the FY2018 enacted level, including:
    • $6.56 billion for NSF’s research and research activities, an increase of $222 million above the current level;
    • $915 million for NSF’s education and training programs, an increase of $13 million above FY2018.
  • $21.3 billion for NASA, $587 million above current level, including:
    • $6.4 billion for Science, $179 million above the FY2018 level, including $1.9 billion for Earth science, $2.2 billion for Planetary science, $1.5 billion for astrophysics (including $304 million for the Webb telescope), and $720 million for Heliophysics;
    • $725 million for Aeronautics, an increase of $40 million;
    • $933 million for Space Technology, $173-million increase.
  • $5.48 billion for NOAA, a $426-million decrease below the current level, including $71 million for the Sea Grant program, which is a $6-million increase.

The Interior bill, which funds, among other agencies the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).  It would appropriate $1.15 billion to the USGS and $155 million to the NEH.

We will continue to provide additional details as they become available.