Update on Research Funding via Federal Agencies July 14, 2021
Research Development's Strategic Intelligence team monitors the federal budget and funding landscape and produces this memo on a bi-weekly basis to share information that may impact ASU research..
Science Budget
Congress takes first spending steps, with good news for U.S. research agencies
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) would get hefty increases of 15% and 13%, respectively, in bills taken up today by two House appropriations subcommittees, the first step in the process of setting annual funding levels. NASA science programs would rise by 10% to nearly $8 billion, and the Office of Science at the Department of Energy (DOE) would grow by 4% to $7.32 billion. Core research programs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology would grow by nearly 20%, to $938 million.
Appropriations Subcommittee Approves Fiscal Year 2022 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Funding Bill
On 7/12/2021, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related
Agencies today approved by voice vote its fiscal year 2022 bill. The bill includes $9.63 billion for NSF, an increase of $1.15 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level. These funds will foster innovation and U.S. economic competitiveness, including funding for climate science and sustainable research, as well as research on artificial intelligence, quantum information science, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and many other critical areas. The bill also invests in scientific infrastructure. The bill next heads to the full Committee for markup.
National Science Foundation (NSF)
House working on China innovation bills
Members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee have viewed the Senate bill skeptically from the start and even more so after it was amended to reduce the amount it would provide the National Science Foundation from $100 billion to $81 billion over five years — a feeling shared by the research community, including universities, which is hoping for a significant boost in funding.
Dear Colleague Letter: Opportunities for Collaboration between CISE and SBE Researchers
https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21099/nsf21099.jsp
On 6/23/2021, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released a Dear Colleague Letter highlighting existing opportunities for collaboration at the agency’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate.
Agencies today approved by voice vote its fiscal year 2022 bill. The bill includes $9.63 billion for NSF, an increase of $1.15 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level. These funds will foster innovation and U.S. economic competitiveness, including funding for climate science and sustainable research, as well as research on artificial intelligence, quantum information science, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and many other critical areas. The bill also invests in scientific infrastructure. The bill next heads to the full Committee for markup.
NSF selects Susan S. Margulies to head the Engineering Directorate
https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=303000&org=NSF&from=news
NSF has selected Susan S. Margulies to head the Directorate for Engineering. She is the first biomedical engineer to lead the engineering directorate, which supports fundamental research in emerging and frontier basic research areas. Since 2017, Margulies has been professor and chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, housed jointly at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. Margulies is internationally recognized for spurring paradigm shifts in two fields simultaneously -- pediatric traumatic brain injury and lung injury associated with mechanical ventilators.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
DARPA Wants AI That Can Learn From Others’ Experiences
https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2021/06/darpa-wants-ai-can-learn-others-experiences/175043/
DARPA is offering up to $1 million per proposal under the Shared-Experience Lifelong Learning, or ShELL, program. The project will be completed over two phases, with awards topping out at $1 million per proposal. Phase I focuses on a six-month feasibility study, with up to $300,000 in funding support. Projects that make it to Phase II will develop a proof-of-concept over 12 months, with maximum funding of $700,000.
Department of Energy (DoE)
House Draft Budget does not include ARPA-C; 4% increase for Office of Science
https://www.aip.org/fyi/fyi-this-week/week-july-12-2021
The drafts would not fund the administration’s proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency for Climate, though they would provide more than requested for ARPA–Energy. The bill for NIH would set up an ARPA–Health within the agency with an initial budget of $3 billion, short of the $6.5 billion the administration requested. The DOE Office of Science would receive a 4% budget increase, suggesting appropriators have been more convinced by the administration’s proposal to focus spending increases on applied energy R&D than by the House Science Committee’s vision of boosting funding for fundamental science.
EPA
Appropriations Committee Releases Fiscal Year 2022 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Funding Bill
The FY 2022 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill provides a total of $11.34 billion in for EPA – an increase of $2.11 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level and $110.8 million above the President’s budget request.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
NIST Proposal Aims to Reduce Bias in Artificial Intelligence
https://www.govtech.com/products/nist-proposal-aims-to-reduce-bias-in-artificial-intelligence
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently announced the publication of A Proposal for Identifying and Managing Bias in Artificial Intelligence. The proposal outlines a possible approach for reducing risk of bias in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and the agency is seeking comments from the public to strengthen that effort until Aug. 5.
General Science Policy News
HOT TOPIC: Competing Visions – The NSF for the Future Act and the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act
https://www.cossa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/NSF-Reauth-Hot-Topic-July-2021.pdf
The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) / Endless Frontier Act (S. 1260) package includes the Advancing American AI Act (S. 1353), a bill introduced by Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) to streamline and coordinate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in government and to ensure that the government’s use of AI is documented in a transparent manner. The bill would establish a program… to identify and pilot four applications of “artificial intelligence-enabled systems to support inter-agency or intra-agency modernization initiatives that require linking multiple siloed internal and external data sources.”
What the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act Gets Right (and What It Gets Wrong)
Several academic organizations have warned about how the Innovation and Competition Act may limit scientific collaboration with international partners and inhibit U.S. research capabilities. Academia is also concerned about a proposed requirement in the bill that would subject foreign gifts to universities of $1 million or more to be subject to CFIUS review, a process that could be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.
New Strategic Council for Research Excellence, Integrity, and Trust Established by National Academy of Sciences to Support the Health of the Research Enterprise
A new Strategic Council for Research Excellence, Integrity, and Trust has been established by the National Academy of Sciences to convene stakeholders across the research enterprise to develop ways to promote high-quality research practices and to anticipate and address challenges to research ethics and integrity.