President Biden is expected to nominate Arati Prabhakar to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Alondra Nelson has been running OSTP on an interim basis since Eric Lander’s resignation earlier this year. She has served in prior Democratic administrations, as the director of the National Institute of Science and Technology under Bill Clinton and as the head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under Barack Obama.
News and updates
ARPA-H Established Within NIH as Independent Entity
Earlier today, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra formally unveiled the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA) as an independent agency within the NIH. Along with that announced, Adam H. Russell was named as the Acting Deputy Director of the new organization.
The creation of ARPA-H, modeled on its counterparts at the Department of Defense (DARPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE), has been a priority of the Biden Administration.
Read more about today’s announcements here.
FY2023 NOAA Congressional Budget Justification Available
Yesterday, NOAA made available its Congressional justification document for its FY2023 budget request. The document, available here, calls for:
- A total of $774.8 million for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the research office within NOAA.
- Within OAR, climate research programs would be funded at $256.6 million and climate cooperative institutes would be funded at $108.7 million.
- The base Sea Grant program would receive $76.3 million and the Sea Grant Aquaculture program would receive $13.3 million.
- Within the National Ocean Service, the IOOS Regional Observation Network would receive $40.5 million under the budget proposal.
Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmed to SCOTUS
FY2023 Biden Budget Request Package Released
As expected, the FY2023 budget request package from the Biden Administration was released on Monday. While it reflects the Administration’s wishes in many cases, Congress will have the final say. The FY2022 process completed only a few weeks ago, after the agencies began compiling numbers for FY2023. That means that some of the requests for FY2023 may actually be below the final FY2022 levels, and the Administration has acknowledged the need to adjust its thinking as the FY2023 appropriations process moves forward.
We are still in the process of reviewing the proposals from the various agencies of importance to UW, but we can share initial details, which are provided below.
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
The Administration is proposing a base budget of $45.3 billion for NIH, not including a request of $5 billion for ARPA-H.
While NIH-specific budget documents are not yet available, initial information is available through the budget documents of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), of which NIH is a part. The budget brief for HHS is available here.
Department of Education
With its request, the Biden Administration seeks to increase the Pell Grant maximum award to $8,670 and is, once again, seeking to expand the program to include DACA recipients.
SEOG and the Federal Work Study programs would be funded at $880 million and $1.19 billion, respectively. In addition, TRIO and GEARUP programs would be funded at $1.3 billion and $408 million, respectively.
The budget request proposes to fund the group of Title VI International Education programs at $78.2 million while GAANN would receive $23.5 million under the proposal.
The Institute of Education Sciences would be funded at $662.5 million under the current budget proposal.
As part of its request for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), the Education Department is seeking to create a new $450-million research infrastructure program at minority-serving institutions.
Additional information about the ED budget request can be found here.
National Science Foundation
For FY2023, the Administration has proposed a total of $10.5 billion for the NSF.
Within the NSF budget, the Research and Related Activities account would be funded at $8.425 billion. The agency proposes to rename the Education and Human Resources account to “STEM Education” and would fund it at $1.377 billion. The Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction account would be funded at $187.2 million under this budget.
The agency recently launched the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships Directorate and proposes to fund it at $880 million in FY2023.
The NSF budget document is available here.
Department of Energy
Meanwhile, for DOE, the Administration is seeking a total of $48.2 billion, including $7.8 billion for the Office of Science and $4.0 billion for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Fusion would be funded at $723.2 million and Biological and Environmental Research would be funded at $903.7 million.
The budget request also includes $700 million for ARPA-E .
Additional information about the DOE budget is available here.
NOAA
The Administration is calling for $6.88 billion for NOAA next year. While the agency details are not yet available, NOOA released this yesterday.
NASA
In FY2023, the Administration is seeking $26 billion for NASA, with $7.98 billion being proposed for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD). Within SMD, $2.41 billion is slated for Earth Science, including new funding for wildfire initiatives and a new Earth Information Center. The budget request also includes $1.44 billion for Space Technology.
As part of the Office of STEM Engagement request, the budget proposal is seeking $57 million for the Space Grant program.
NASA budget documents are available here.
Department of Defense
The Pentagon budget request for next year totals approximately $773 billion, including $130 billion for Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation, which is the portion of the agency’s budget that funds research programs. For basic research (“6.1” research), the DOD is seeking $2.4 billion, which would be essentially flat funding the portfolio.
The research budget, or the “R-1”, is available here.
USGS
Within the larger Department of Interior budget, the Administration is seeking $1.78 billion for the USGS.
The request includes $85.7 million for the Climate Adaptation Science Centers, $28.2 million for the Cooperative Research Units, and $99.9 million for Earthquake Hazards.
A brief overview of the USGS budget proposal is available here.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The EPA’s total budget request of $11.9 billion includes $864.2 million for the Science and Technology account. Additional details are available here.
Additional Information
We will continue to provide additional details. Again, the budget request from the Administration represents only the beginning of the appropriations process. We most likely will not see a resolution until the beginning of next calendar year, well into the next fiscal year.