Update on Research Funding via Federal Agencies March 09, 2022
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 Policy Legislation
Congressional leaders reach government funding deal with almost $14B in Ukraine aid
House and Senate appropriators struck a bipartisan deal early Wednesday on a massive bill to fund the federal government through September and provide nearly $14 billion in aid for Ukraine. The House is expected to vote on the $1.5 trillion package Wednesday, with a possible vote in the Senate by the end of the week. The bipartisan agreement is the culmination of months of negotiations on Capitol Hill that resulted in a prolonged stalemate between Democrats and Republicans...Congress faces a Friday night deadline, when government funding is set to expire, to pass the more-than 2,700-page spending bill and prevent a shutdown. The House is expected to vote on a short-term funding extension through Tuesday as well to give the Senate enough time to pass the larger bill.
Russia's war in Ukraine could spur another global chip shortage
https://www.wired.com/story/ukraine-chip-shortage-neon/
Ukraine is just one of a series of choke points in the global semiconductor industry. Around half of the world’s neon gas comes from the country, TechCet, an electronic materials advisory firm which advises some of the world’s biggest chipmakers including Intel and Samsung, told WIRED...But sourcing neon from elsewhere will not be easy. Any disruption in Ukraine will hit chipmakers at a time when the industry is already under intense pressure from post-pandemic demand. “The drive behind increased production is so strong that it is causing strain in the supply chain everywhere, even without a war,” Shon-Roy adds. “So there is no excess supply of this kind of gas that I know of, not in the Western world.”
Biden Pushes Innovation Initiatives in State of the Union Speech
https://www.aip.org/fyi/fyi-this-week/week-march-7-2022
In his State of the Union address on 3/1/2022, President Biden called on Congress to pass bipartisan legislation to increase federal spending on emerging technologies and domestic manufacturing, alluding to pending efforts to reconcile the Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Competition Act with the House’s America COMPETES Act. Highlighting the two bills’ subsidies for the semiconductor sector, he said that the company Intel is prepared to increase its spending on new domestic semiconductor manufacturing efforts to $100 billion should the legislation pass. After the speech, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) signaled he is open to new legislation linking Biden’s hoped-for clean energy investments with his push to cut off imports of Russian fuels and ramp up domestic fossil fuel production to compensate.
AAU Sends Letter to Congress Outlining Research and Higher Education Priorities for Competitiveness Legislation
AAU President Snyder sent a letter to House and Senate leaders outlining priorities for several key provisions that Congress is discussing as part of the conference process for the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S. 1260) and the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act (H.R. 4521). The letter expresses support for provisions that authorize additional investments in federal research, STEM education, and innovation programs, and urges Congress to ensure that all new activities authorized by the bills are accompanied by sufficient funding. The letter also emphasizes America’s leading research universities’ commitment to promoting research security while raising significant concerns about some of the science and security provisions in the bills.
Request for Information to Support the Development of a Federal Scientific Integrity Policy Framework
The White House OSTP seeks information to assist in developing a framework for regular assessment and iterative improvement of agency scientific integrity policies and practices. This effort builds on the Scientific Integrity Task Force's review of existing scientific integrity policies and practices, released in the January 11, 2022 report, Protecting the Integrity of Government Science. Topics of interest include how to ensure the “long-term viability” of policies, practices, and culture through future administrations, and how scientific integrity policies can “address important and emergent issues of our time, including diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility; new technologies; emerging modes of science; and coordination with related policy domains.” Comments are due April 4.
Department of Defense (DoD)
DoD hoping to build microelectronics ecosystem through innovation hubs, seeks public input
The U.S. Department of Defense is envisioning a public private partnership of regional innovation hubs that would help support and expand the microelectronics industry in the United States. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) is seeking input from the domestic microelectronics community through a Request for Information it issued last week as it works to “foster a pipeline of innovation ideas and talent residing in university labs and small business R&D teams” through what it is calling a Microelectronics Commons. Response to the RFI is required by April 5th.
Department of Energy (DoE)
DOE Optimizes Structure to Implement $62 Billion in Clean Energy Investments from Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
The Department of Energy (DOE) today announced an organizational realignment to ensure that the Department has the structure needed to effectively implement the clean energy investments in President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Energy Act of 2020. The new organizational structure establishes two Under Secretaries: one focused on fundamental science and clean energy innovation and the other focused on deploying clean infrastructure—supporting DOE’s ongoing work to achieve carbon-free electricity in the U.S. by 2035 and a net zero economy by 2050.
Manufacturing Institute Virtual Peer Review open to public March 14-15, 2022.
https://www.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/vJIscumgqDouHIeaxG1v7ugvMeu5dFn4i_g
About the Event: This virtual peer review will examine the accomplishments of the RAPID Institute over the past five years with an aim to understand where improvements could be made and what the Institute hopes to achieve in the future. With funding from the Department of Energy, the RAPID Institute was established in 2017 as a public-private partnership that would accelerate innovation in the area of Chemical Modular Process Intensification. Process Intensification remains an important pathway to achieve the Department of Energy’s goals for improving energy efficiency and driving emissions reduction in the Industrial Sector.
DOE Seeks Input on Building-Integrated Photovoltaics | Department of Energy
https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/doe-seeks-input-building-integrated-photovoltaics
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) and Building Technologies Office (BTO) have jointly issued a request for information (RFI) to gather input on technical and commercial challenges and opportunities for building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems. While roof-mounted solar systems on buildings are more common, BIPV systems offer other ways to site solar technologies on buildings, like directly integrating solar modules into the roof or the building’s facade. Integrating solar generation directly into building components could improve material and supply chain efficiencies and reduce system costs. The deadline for response is April 1, 2022.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Shunning of Russia strains International Space Station partnership
In the short term, current events are unlikely to affect the day-to-day running of the station, space policy experts say...A more direct threat to the program could arise if Russia no longer chooses to boost the altitude of the space station – a task that is currently accomplished with the help of its Progress supply vehicles that dock to the station. Russia is only committed to membership in the space station until 2024 and an earlier exit cannot be ruled out if relations with the West deteriorate further. Meanwhile, the U.S. has said it plans to extend the station’s operations to the end of the decade.
NASA auditor warns Congress: Artemis missions, SLS rocket billions over budget
NASA’s auditor didn’t mince words when he told lawmakers 3/1/2022 that the space agency’s lunar program is going to cost a ton more per mission than initial projections suggested a decade ago. “We found that the first four Artemis missions will each cost $4.1 billion per launch, a price tag that strikes us as unsustainable,” NASA Inspector General Paul Martin said during a meeting of the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. There are other costs, too. Martin said the $4.1 billion estimate is only for production costs and ground operations, “and does not include development costs required to get the Artemis program to this point in time.” Martin's recent audit of Artemis found $40 billion has already been spent on the program, with NASA “projected to spend $93 billion on the Artemis effort” through 2025.