Special report: Obama proposes big increases for energy, climate change, and basic research

With a new administration taking charge at the White House, the increased funding for federal science and technology that began with the economic stimulus bill could be just a down payment on much bigger investments to come. Calling science “more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment, and our quality of life than it has ever been,” President Obama in April announced his goal of growing US S&T expenditures to a level of 3% of gross domestic product. Saying that his target represented “the largest commitment to scientific research and innovation in American history,” Obama noted it would exceed the high watermark set in 1964, at the height of the space race. In 2007 total US R&D expenditures equaled 2.66% of GDP, according to NSF statistics. At its 1964 peak, the ratio was 2.88%.

In the years ahead, Obama’s spending goals will collide head-on with his insistence that the massive federal budget deficit be brought under control. But for now, at least, the federal funding spigots have been opened for S&T through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which Obama signed into law in February. The $787 billion stimulus, meant to revive the flagging US economy, appropriated massive increases for S&T programs at the Department of Energy (DOE), NSF, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other S&T funding agencies. (See Physics Today, April 2009, page 22 .) Compared with ARRA, the S&T increases in Obama’s fiscal year 2010 request are puny. Still, the budget proposal, unveiled three months late on 14 May, presents the first detailed blueprint of the administration’s priorities for S&T. The plan places far greater emphasis on developing alternative energy sources and slowing climate change than did the budgets proposed by President George W. Bush.

On the other hand, Obama adopts the objectives of Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative, which sought to double over 10 years the basic research budgets of NSF, DOE’s Office of Science, and NIST’s core laboratory programs—the programs that supply most of the federal investment for basic research in the physical sciences. Congress, which embraced that same goal with passage of the America COMPETES Act in 2007, jeopardized the 10-year timetable by failing to follow through with the required appropriations in both FY 2007 and 2008. This year, the $5.2 billion supplied by ARRA to the three agencies, combined with increases provided in the FY 2009 omnibus appropriations act, has made up the shortfall and put the doubling back on schedule for now. Obama’s 2010 budget seeks $12.6 billion for the programs, an increase of $731 million, or 6.1%, above the 2009 base (not including ARRA funds). In addition, his 2010 proposal spells out projections for completing the doubling effort in 2016; the three agencies would get $19.5 billion, twice the $9.7 billion they received in FY 2006.

The new administration says its budget request will place a “special emphasis” on basic and applied research that it believes will fundamentally improve understanding of nature, revolutionize key fields of science, and foster radically new technologies. After a four-year period, ending in 2008, where funding failed to keep pace with inflation, the FY 2009 enacted level and the 2010 request represent a “real-dollar turnaround in federal research investments across the spectrum of the sciences and engineering,” according to a budget summary issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. But the $59 billion research portfolio it proposes for basic and applied research is up just 0.6%, or $376 million, compared with the current year level (excluding ARRA funding). And more than half of those funds—$30.8 billion—will go to one agency, NIH.

The 2010 budget provides $1.6 billion for the multiagency National Nanotechnology Initiative, a slight cut of $17 million, or 1%, from the 2009 enacted level. That reduction is due to the proposed elimination in FY 2010 of earmarks—congressionally mandated projects—that were included in the FY 2009 Department of Defense budget. Like his predecessor, Obama is counting on the elimination of earmarks to pay for much of the increase he seeks for the R&D programs of the agencies. The 2010 budget proposes $3.7 billion for the more than 100 federal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education programs, an increase of $98 million, or 2.7%, over the current level for those programs. In addition for those programs, ARRA provides $276 million, which will be spent over 2009 and 2010.

Following are some highlights for the agencies that supply most of the funding for physical sciences research.

Department of Energy. Arguably, no federal scientific agency has seen such a reordering of its priorities with the change of administrations as has DOE. That shift was presaged by Obama’s choice of Steven Chu to head the agency; the Nobel laureate physicist refocused his career in 2004 on using clean energy sources more efficiently to combat climate change. DOE’s share of ARRA is more than $38 billion, with energy efficiency and renewable energy programs alone receiving $16.8 billion next year. Another $4.5 billion is allocated to the electricity delivery and energy reliability office, primarily to support the development of a “smart grid,” which will be needed to accommodate major increases in solar and wind electricity generation. The fossil energy research program is getting $4.5 billion in ARRA funds.

But only a fraction of the stimulus funding—$5.5 billion—goes to energy R&D, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The AAAS calculates that $2.5 billion of the ARRA monies are for R&D to increase energy efficiency and improve the competitiveness of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuel. Another $1 billion will support R&D toward reducing or eliminating emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning.

Separately, basic physical sciences programs administered by DOE’s Office of Science will receive $1.6 billion from ARRA. Most of that will pay for long-needed upgrades to the infrastructure and equipment at the national laboratories. However, the three largest national labs—Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos—are not eligible for ARRA funding because they are operated by DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

For FY 2010, the budget for the Office of Science comes back to Earth, with a request of $4.9 billion, a 3.9% increase from the current year’s base budget. The basic energy sciences program, which administers the numerous scientific user facilities at the national labs, would get a 7% increase from the current year’s base—not counting its $555 million share of ARRA funding—to $1.7 billion next year. Advanced scientific computing research would jump almost 11% next year, to $409 million.

The request includes a new budget line of $10 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, a DOE entity that Congress first authorized in 2007 to stimulate research on radically new ways to produce energy. Although Bush ignored the congressional authorization, Obama has embraced ARPA-E and has already provided $400 million for it through ARRA. According to the DOE request, ARPA-E will identify and promote “radical or breakthrough advances that can potentially produce transformative results and complement other ongoing research focusing on driving known technological solutions toward their fundamental limits.” Patterned after the successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), ARPA-E is expected to hasten advances in energy technologies to the proof-of-concept and prototyping phases and, for smaller-scale projects, into the demonstration phase. The search for an ARPA-E director, who will be a presidential appointee requiring Senate confirmation, was under way at press time. Eschewing peer review, the new office will empower carefully chosen program managers to pick and choose research proposals.

The FY 2010 budget proposal includes $70 million for two of the eight proposed “energy innovation hubs” that will be administered by the Office of Science. Those centers, which will employ multidisciplinary teams of experts, will focus on two grand energy challenges: the creation of fuels directly from sunlight without the use of plants or microbes, and advanced methods of electrical energy storage. Chu told a Senate committee in May that he strongly hopes the researchers who will staff the hubs will be housed in a single location.

The budget request proposes $115 million for a new DOE–NSF program to encourage US students to take up careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, with an emphasis on fields that work on clean energy.

NSF. The $3 billion in ARRA funding appropriated for NSF amounted to half the agency’s 2008 total budget. Two-thirds of the supplement will be used to fund thousands more research proposals, the majority of which either have already been reviewed and deemed to be of high quality or are currently in the review process. Those grants are expected to be awarded by September. Highly rated proposals that were rejected on or after 1 October 2008 due to a lack of available funding will be reconsidered. All ARRA-funded grants will be standard NSF grants, with durations of up to 5 years, and funding of new principal investigators and high-risk, high-return research projects will be a top priority, according to NSF director Arden Bement. But ARRA monies will not be used to supplement existing grants.

Of the remaining $1 billion from ARRA, $400 million will supplement NSF’s major research facilities and equipment construction account, $300 million will go for competitively selected grants to help universities finance major research instrumentation, and $200 million will pay for grants to upgrade academic infrastructure. Science and mathematics education programs will receive $100 million.

Although another $3 billion increase for NSF isn’t in the cards for FY 2010, Obama’s request does propose an 8.5% increase, taking the agency to slightly more than $7 billion. The 2010 request will increase by 11% the amount of funding available for grants, Bement told the National Science Board in May. Investments in networking and information technology research reach $1.1 billion in the 2010 budget, an increase of 11%. Research in large-scale networking, high-end computing, human–computer interaction, and the social, economic, and workforce aspects of advanced computing and communications technologies receive the largest increases.

For 2010 NSF will invest $390 million in three programs to strengthen America’s science and engineering workforce. During Obama’s first term, Bement said, the agency will triple the number of new graduate research fellowships to support outstanding young students. New fellowships will number 1654 in 2010, up from this year’s 1228 and on course to reach 3000 in 2013. More funding will be available for the faculty early career development program, which supports the teaching and research efforts of junior faculty deemed likely to become future academic leaders. NSF also plans to expand its advanced technology education program for expanding the nation’s high-tech workforce.

The change in administrations is evidenced by proposed increases for NSF’s climate change research activities. The NSF budget requests $10 million in FY 2010 funding for a climate change education program whose goal is to encourage a new generation of environmentally engaged scientists and engineers. Its awards will go toward increasing public understanding and engagement; developing resources for learning; informing local and national science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education policy; and preparing a professional climate science workforce. Building on its $299 million request—an increase of $80 million, or 36%, from 2009—for the 13-agency climate change science program, NSF will spend $198 million for interdisciplinary climate research. That research will address ecosystem vulnerability, the carbon cycle, ocean acidification, abrupt climate change, dynamics of water in the environment, and weather extremes.

The budget would increase funding for the NSF-wide faculty early career development program by 11.6%, to almost $209 million. And beginning next year, each of NSF’s research divisions will set aside at least $2 million ($92 million across NSF) to explore methodologies and leverage ongoing activities that foster transformative research.

NASA. Although the space agency would receive a 10% increase for its R&D programs in FY 2010, it is nearly all designated for human spaceflight programs. The basic science programs would see a decline of 8.7%, with particularly sharp cuts proposed for Earth science and astrophysics. Acting administrator Christopher Scolese said NASA had followed guidance from the National Research Council in emphasizing space-based Earth science research, including the development of new sensors in support of the administration’s goal of deploying a global climate research and monitoring system.

With the remaining space shuttles scheduled to be retired in 2010, Obama has ordered an independent review and recommendations for the future of the space agency’s human spaceflight program. Former Lockheed Martin Corp chairman Norman Augustine has been appointed to head the 10-member advisory panel, which is to deliver its recommendations to NASA in August. Under the current schedule, a replacement human space transport system won’t become available until 2015, and during the interim US astronauts will have to rely on Soyuz vehicles operated by the Russian Federal Space Agency to get to and from the International Space Station. The FY 2010 request includes a placeholder budget of $3.5 billion, a slight increase from current-year funding, for development of the new launch rocket and crew vehicle, which are collectively known as Constellation systems. Those numbers will be adjusted to comport with the Augustine committee findings. Another $400 million from ARRA has been appropriated to the Constellation program.

NASA’s aeronautics research program, which has eroded steadily over the past several years, would finally level off at around $500 million under the Obama budget. Despite the addition of $150 million in ARRA funds, the program will fall far short of where it was in 2006, when nearly $900 million was spent.

Department of Defense. The change at the White House seemingly did little to affect the presidential attitude toward basic research funded by the Pentagon. That relatively small slice of DOD’s mammoth research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) portfolio is of paramount interest to academic institutions, which perform the bulk of the department’s basic research, known as 6.1. While Obama’s request of $1.8 billion for basic science falls 1.5% below the current year, the White House said its request would be a “substantial increase” if $150 million in congressional earmarks were excluded. As it has done in past years, Congress is likely to add to the Pentagon’s basic research budget and to continue earmarking.

Department of Energy R&D programs

Department of Homeland Security R&D programs

NASA R&D programs

Department of Defense R&D programs

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act R&D funding

NSF R&D programs

Department of Commerce (NOAA and NIST) R&D programs

Overall, the $78.9 billion request for RDT&E slashes $1.9 billion, or 3.4%, from the FY 2009 budget. The budget attributes the decline to the lower priority given to several weapons systems and to the elimination of some earmarks. DARPA, which supports high-risk research, would receive a 3.8% increase, to $3.2 billion.

Department of Homeland Security. A 3.8% increase to the budget of DHS’s science and technology directorate, to $968 million, was offset by a 29% plunge in funding for the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), from $514 million to $366 million. Within S&T, R&D for explosives countermeasures would jump more than 25%, reaching $121 million, and border and maritime security R&D would swell almost 22%. High-risk research that has the potential to produce breakthrough technologies would climb 33%, to $44 million. DNDO’s drop was due to an absence of acquisitions planned for 2010; a slight increase is proposed to the office’s R&D program.

NIST. The $652 million requested for NIST’s intramural laboratories will enhance the agency’s research capabilities by providing new equipment and facilities for basic research in health information technology, digital smart grid technology, carbon measurements, and other areas. Separately, the budget would sustain NIST’s external programs, including $125 million (a $15 million increase over the 2009 enacted level) for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), which aims to improve the competitiveness of US manufacturers. But Obama is seeking only a $5 million increase for the Technology Innovation Program, a grants program that supports early-stage, high-risk technology development. Begun during the administration of President George H. W. Bush, the program was then known as the Advanced Technology Program. Once envisioned by President Clinton as growing to $1 billion a year, the ATP became a perennial lightning rod for conservatives who branded it as corporate welfare. The younger Bush proposed to kill the program with each budget request, but Congress allowed it to limp along at a low level of funding—just $65 million in the current year.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Obama’s $644 million request for NOAA’s R&D operations is 8% below the current-year level. Although the agency is receiving $830 million from ARRA, none of that is for R&D purposes.