Study sounds alarm on decaying NIST facilities

Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a 17 February post on FYI, which reports on federal science policy. Both FYI and Physics Today are published by the American Institute of Physics.

NIST needs hundreds of millions of dollars annually into the mid 2030s to reverse the deterioration of buildings and infrastructure on its campuses in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Boulder, Colorado. In a report released on 7 February, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine warn that conditions have been worsening for years and are undermining the agency’s ability to perform its mission.

Established in 1901, NIST is one of the federal government’s oldest science agencies. With an annual base budget of a little more than $1 billion, it is also among the smallest. Most of NIST’s portfolio comprises intramural research related to metrology and technical standards, spanning subjects such as microelectronics, telecommunications, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, materials, building integrity, and greenhouse gas monitoring.

Convened last year at the request of NIST and Congress, the National Academies study committee attributes the degraded conditions at the agency to years of insufficient funding. To address the situation, it urges “resolute action” from NIST and its overseers in the Commerce Department, the White House, and Congress.

Decaying conditions documented in detail

Researchers at NIST face frequent power, water, and climate-control failures, the committee states. Power outages destroyed one electron microscope valued at $6 million; water leaks destroyed another worth $2.5 million. One leak permanently degraded a $10 million facility housing a Kibble balance, an ultrasensitive device that makes mass measurements.

Another, ongoing leak in a steam system has caused an average loss of between 50 000 and 70 000 gallons of water daily. The agency hopes to have a contractor begin fixing the deteriorating pipes within the next two fiscal years, says Jennifer Huergo, NIST director of public affairs.

Some incidents also created acute safety hazards, as when a 4-inch steam line strainer failed catastrophically, causing an explosion that could have been fatal had anyone been nearby.

The committee finds such problems have delayed work by months or years and reduced productivity by between 10% and 40%, depending on the specific circumstances in different labs. It also describes the “heroic dedication” of NIST researchers who have diverted their time into mitigating the problems. “While innovative, this very inefficient and costly use of technical talent is now considered normal among NIST researchers,” the committee says.

The committee argues that although NIST has achieved “remarkable successes despite drastic underinvestment in its facilities,” compounding problems are testing staff members’ ability and willingness to adapt and are hampering the recruitment and retention of personnel. It finds NIST could be performing at a higher level and warns there is a high risk of future degradation in work quality. “In short, any current appearance of great work being produced in substandard facilities is an illusion that will soon collapse absent corrective action,” it states.

Recapitalization plan requires major funding boost

The National Academies committee endorses a plan that NIST’s facilities office drafted last year for recapitalizing the Gaithersburg and Boulder campuses. The plan estimates that NIST will require between $300 million and $400 million in construction funding every year for the next 12 years. Another $120 million to $150 million in maintenance funding likely will be needed for at least that long to arrest further facilities deterioration.

NIST’s fiscal year 2023 appropriation included no funding for constructing facilities on campus. It provided $130 million for maintenance, up from $80 million the year before. Reviewing the history of those accounts for the last two decades, the committee concludes that requests and appropriations have consistently fallen short of what NIST has needed.

The committee states that resolving conditions at NIST will require “immediate, top-down attention” to resolve funding shortfalls. It notes that NIST’s primary advisory panel, the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), has been advocating for more funding for years and recommends that the agency improve its communications with decision makers to convey the gravity of its problems and their broader implications.

NIST officials chime in

Eric Dillinger, an executive at the Woolpert engineering consulting firm and a member of the study committee, provided a briefing on the report during a VCAT meeting on 8 February. He advised the agency to make its case by articulating the impacts of the conditions it faces rather than dwelling on the conditions themselves. “You’re doing world-class research in subpar, poor-to-fit facilities,” he said. “Now, if that doesn’t impact the research, then it’s a great investment strategy, because you’re getting really crappy facilities and really good results.”

Dillinger suggested emphasizing the 10–40% productivity degradation cited in the study. “So, with a staff of researchers in excess of 4000 people, you’re losing 25% of that capability,” he said. “That’s the impact.”

NIST officials also discussed less quantifiable impacts of conditions on the agency’s work culture. Observing that campus activity has been muted since the beginning of the pandemic, they noted that facilities conditions have exacerbated the problem, such as by necessitating the continued closure of common spaces.

NIST director Laurie Locascio also said that, although the Commerce Department now requires employees at its agencies to be on-site three days per week, exceptions are made “if your facilities basically aren’t appropriate for handling people.” She reported that this has recently become the case with the agency’s main administrative building on its Gaithersburg campus. “I’m not in my office. I haven’t been since November. I’m camping out in different places because the entire building is basically shut down,” she said, adding that it is supposed to accommodate about 500 people.

Earmarks complicate budget calculus

At the VCAT meeting, NIST leaders also discussed how congressional earmarks are taking a toll on the agency’s ability to address its facilities problems.

Since reviving the practice of earmarking appropriations for specific projects in FY 2022, Congress has increased NIST’s top-line budget by 60%, with earmarks accounting for most of the additional money. Congress provided $462 million for NIST’s construction of research facilities account in FY 2023, but about 70% of the total is for projects external to the agency , primarily at universities.

NIST officials told VCAT that, even though the earmarked money is transferred to external entities, the agency is still expected to administer it via grants and audit the funded projects without receiving overhead funding to perform the work. As new earmarks are added, they said, administrative capacity is becoming strained. One official suggested that earmarks can be regarded as occupying budgetary room that otherwise could be allocated to increases for agency projects.

Putting a positive spin on the situation, Locascio suggested earmarks might help broaden congressional interest in NIST. “There are a lot of people out there now aware of NIST because they found our budget. . . . There may be an opportunity somehow—and we haven’t quite figured this out—to at least make sure that we get our name out there while we’re administering these grants,” she said.

However, it is also possible that NIST is gaining a reputation as a grant-administering agency. Senate appropriators proposed last year that NIST reestablish a competitive grant program created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 to fund construction projects at extramural research institutions. Ultimately Congress did not act on that idea.

This year NIST is building capacity to administer the $50 billion the Commerce Department is receiving through the CHIPS and Science Act to fund industry-led efforts to bolster US semiconductor R&D and manufacturing. A marquee initiative in the Biden administration’s industrial policy, those efforts are virtually certain to become the most high-profile and intensely scrutinized activity in the agency’s portfolio.