Science & Politics Budget Exercise-NSF Background

(from IB10018, 07-09-99)

The National Science Foundation (NSF)

The FY2000 request for the National Science Foundation (NSF) is $3,921 million, a 6.8% ($250 million) increase over the FY1999 estimate of $3,671 million. (The numbers used in this discussion include the current estimates by the House Committee on VA-HUD Appropriations. See Table 6). The FY2000 request is part of the Administration’s commitment to basic research, as outlined in the "21st Century Research Fund." The request includes significant investments in several priority areas, including biocomplexity in the environment ($50 million) and in new and comprehensive approaches to education and workforce development ($475 million). At the suggestion of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, the NSF has been designated as the lead agency for an initiative on information technology that involves six federal agencies. NSF’s FY2000 request provides $146 million for the Information for the Twenty-First Century (IT²) initiative. The investment will support research in areas such as software systems, high-end computing, and terascale computing systems. In addition, IT² builds on the NSF’s current investments in Knowledge and Distributive Intelligence (KDI) and other information technology-related activities.

Included in the FY2000 request is $3,004 million for Research and Related Activities (R&RA), 8.4% ($234 million) above the FY1999 level of $2,770 million. R&RA funds research projects, research facilities, and education and training activities. The NSF has placed an emphasis on funding rates for new investigators and on increasing its efforts to address grant size and duration. The R&RA includes an activity created in FY1999 — Integrative Activities (IA). IA provides support for cross-disciplinary research, major research instrumentation, intellectual infrastructure, and the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI). (The STPI includes what previously was named the Critical Technologies Institute). The FY2000 request for IA is $161.2 million.

Table 6. National Science Foundation
($ millions)

Research project support in the FY2000 request totals $2,316 million, an increase of 8% over FY1999. Support is provided individuals and small groups conducting both disciplinary and cross-disciplinary research. Included in the total for research projects is support for centers, proposed at $284 million. Research facility support in FY2000 is $744 million. NSF supports a variety of individual centers and centers programs. A total of $25 million will support a new class of Science and Technology Centers to explore interdisciplinary research activities. Funding for the Engineering Research Centers will increase by $6 million and funding for the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers will increase by $4 million. The support for centers will provide $30 million to initiate Information Technology Centers. These particular centers will explore such areas as broadband tetherless communications, performance-engineered systems, and research directed at increasing the physical and mental capabilities of individuals.

The Major Research Equipment (MRE) account is proposed at $85 million in FY2000, a 6.3% decrease ($5.7 million) from the FY1999 estimate. The MRE, established in FY1995, supports the construction of major research facilities that are at the "cutting edge of science and engineering." Projects supported by this account include terascale computing systems ($36 million), construction funds for the Large Hadron Collider ($15.9 million), completion of the design and development phase of the Millimeter Array ($8 million), initial investments in the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation ($7.7 million), the modernization of the South Pole Station ($5.4 million), and funding for the reconfiguration of the Polar Support Aircraft ($12 million).

The FY2000 request for the Education and Human Resources Directorate (EHR) is $678 million, a 2.4% increase ($16 million) above the FY1999 estimate. Support at the various educational levels in the FY2000 request is as follows: precollege, $358 million; undergraduate, $115 million; and graduate, $81.9 million. Support at the precollege level includes investments in two new activities, the National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education Digital Library (NSDL) and the NSF Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education. Support for the NSDL is to further improve the quality, quantity, and comprehensiveness of internet-based educational resources. The Teaching Fellows program will support graduate and undergraduate science and mathematics majors as content resources for teachers in K-12 classrooms. Major programs at the undergraduate level are Advanced Technological Education, Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation, Minority Institution, and Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement. While support at the graduate level in the FY2000 request has decreased slightly from the previous year, several programs that will continue to receive support are the Graduate Research Fellowship, Graduate Research Traineeship, Minority Graduate Education, and Postdoctoral Fellowships in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education. Funding for the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research remains constant at $48.4 million. H-1B nonimmigrant petitioner fees, funded in the EHR, are proposed at $33 million in the FY2000 request.

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last modified February 2, 2000