Budgets

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FY 2005 Appropriations for the National Science Foundation (NSF)

(numbers are in millions)

NSF	FY04 Omnibus	FY05 Request	% change FY04 vs. FY05 Req.	FY05 House	% change FY04 vs. House	FY05 Senate	% change FY04 vs. Senate	FY05 Omnibus	% Change FY04 vs. FY05
Research & Related Activities:						---
Biological Sciences	586.9	599.9	2.2%			605.4	3.1%
Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)	604.6	618.0	2.2%			629.9	4.2%
Engineering	565.1	575.9	1.9%			575.9	1.9%
Geosciences (GEO)	713.1	728.5	2.2%			728.5	2.1%
Earth Sciences	151.6	155.6	2.7%			155.6	2.6%
Ocean Sciences	322.7	329.3	2.0%			329.3	2.0%
Atmospheric Sciences	238.8	243.6	2.0%			243.6	2.0%
NCAR	82.0	83.25	1.5%			83.25	1.5%
Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS)	1,091.5	1,115.5	2.2%			1,123.0	2.9%
Astronomical Sciences	196.5	204.3	4.0%			---
Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences	175.7	190.7	8.5%			224.7	27.9%
U.S Polar Programs	274.1	281.7	2.8%			281.6	2.7%	350.0
Integrative Activities	144.1	240.0	66.5%*			164.9	14.4%
Major Research Instru.	109.3	90.0	-19.35%			---
Total, Research & Related Activities	4,251.4	4,452.3	4.7%	4,151.7	-2.3%	4,402.3	3.5%	4,220.5	0.7%
Education & Human Resources	938.9	771.4	-17.9%*	843.0	-10.2%	929.1	-1.0%	841.4	-10.4%
National STEM Educ. Digital Library (NSDL)	24.4	27.2	11.4%			---
Major Research Equipment & Facilities Construction	154.9	213.2	37.6%	208.0	34.3%	130.4	-15.8%	173.6	12.1%
TOTAL, NSF	5,577.8	5,745.0	3.0%	5,466.9	-2.0%	5,744.6	3.0%	5,472.8	-1.9%

Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) Account:

Project	FY 2004 Omnibus	FY 2005 Request	FY 2005 House	FY 2005 Senate	FY05 Omnibus Bill
Ongoing Projects
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)	50.7	49.7	49.7	49.7	49.7
EarthScope	43.2	47.3	49.3	47.3	47.3
IceCube Neutrino Detector	41.7	33.4	51.2	33.4	48.0
New Projects
National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) [Now under R&RA]		12.0	0	0	Not to exceed 6.0
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program		40.8	30.0	0	15.0
Rare Symmetry Violating Processes		30.0	30.0	0	15.0

 

Education and Human Resources:

Program	FY 2004 Final	FY 2005 Request	% Change	FY 2005 House	FY 2005 Senate	FY05 Omnibus Bill
Math & Science Partnerships (moved to Integrative Activities in FY05 Request)	139.2	80.0	-42.5%	82.5	110.0	80.0
EPSCoR	94.4	84.0	-11.0%	94.440	95.0	94.4
Elementary, Secondary & Informal Education	212.2	172.7	-18.6%	175.457	187.750	183.4
Undergraduate Education	155.5	158.8	2.2%	160.301	162.430	154.9
Graduate Education	155.9	173.9	11.5%	155.950	173.880	155.9
Human Resource Development	115.8	107.9	-6.8%	115.343	126.060	119.5
Research, Evaluation and Communication	65.8	73.9	12.4%	64.494	73.940	60.0
Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduates Program	23.8	20.0	-16.3%			25.4
Informal Science Education	62.1	50.0	-19.5%			63.6

Notes on Omnibus Bill -- November 22, 2004

Congress passed the FY05 Omnibus Bill this past weekend during special session. The numbers in the tables above reflect the final bill numbers, but without an across-the-board cut of .8 percent that will be applied by the agency as required for FY05 by Congress.

Some language of interest in the funding bill for NSF includes the following:

"Notwithstanding the language in the House and Senate reports designating the allocation of funds, the conferees have agreed that the allocation among programs and directorates is to be determined by the Director of the Foundation, unless specifically noted herein. The Foundation is to submit its proposed operating plan to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate within sixty days of the enactment of this Act that addresses the Foundation’s highest research priorities. In developing this plan, the Foundation is urged to maintain the proper balance between interdisciplinary research and single-issue research in core disciplines…

"The conferees concur that funding provided may be used for a new class of Science and Technology Centers if the Director of the Foundation determines such funding is warranted when measured against other priorities within the agreed upon total for this account…

The conferees understand that discussions between the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution are ongoing and have been productive. With respect to Smithsonian researchers’ access to NSF funding, the Committees expect the Foundation to treat any proposal submitted by non-Federal employees of the Smithsonian whose salaries are not part of appropriated accounts in the same manner as any academic proposal."

NOTES on the Senate Markup (9/22/04):
Report 108-353
Yesterday, the full Senate Appropriations Committee marked up and reported out its version of an FY 2005 VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act. For NSF, the Senate Appropriations Committee is recommending a total budget of $5.74 billion – a 3% increase over the FY 2004 level. The Senate’s recommendation is equal to the President’s request and counters the House recommendation which had sought to cut the NSF request by almost $300 million to a level of $5.47 billion.

The Committee rejected the President's request to transfer the Math and Science Partnership program to the Dept. of Education, and provided it $110 million in FY05, $30 million over the FY04 level.

The Senate report did not include language similar to the House regarding Smithsonian scientists competing for NSF grants. The committee has indicated that it will oppose the House language when it goes to conference.

It is not at all clear when this bill will go to the Senate floor. It is quite likely that it will ultimately be included within a larger omnibus appropriations bill later this year.

NOTES on the House Markup (7/20/04):
The House VA, HUD and Independent Agencies Subcommittee completed work on their FY 2005 bill that includes funding for NSF. The full Committee is expected to approve it before Congress breaks for its August recess on Friday, July 23.

The House mark for NSF is down two percent from the FY2004 budget, and down five percent from the President's request. The Subcommittee had to work with a very tight allocation — $2.1 billion more than last year, which went to increase veterans' medical care.

The Research and Related Activities account is down 1.2 percent over FY04, and down 5.7 percent from the President's request because the subcommittee put the Math & Science Partnerships program back in to the Education and Human Resources directorate, and transferred $20 million to salaries and expenses for IPAs (visiting scientists/rotators). The subcommittee did not provide funding levels for the research directorates, such as GEO. The recommendation does not include funding for any new Science and Technology Centers in FY05, and cuts $5 million from its discretionary programs. So essentially, R&RA is down $170 million, not $300 million, from the President's request.

The Subcommittee put the Math & Science Partnerships program back in to the Education and Human Resources directorate (the request moved it into Integrative Activities), and is funded at $82.5 million.

There is language in report that directs NSF research directorates to give "fair consideration in the merit review process" to all eligible Smothsonian Institution scientists.

---

* The request does not fund the Math & Science Partnerships program. $80 million in carryover will be moved from Education and Human Resources to Integrative Activities, however no new awards will be made. $120 million will be transferred from NSF to the Department of Education to fund the President's Jobs for the 21st Century initiative.

NOTES on President's FY 2005 Budget Request (2/2/04):

Just over a year ago, President Bush signed into law legislation authorizing a dramatic and substantial increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to be phased in over five years. For FY 2005, P.L. 107-368 authorized a budget of $7.4 billion for NSF. The President's actual budget request for NSF is $5.7 billion — $1.7 billion short of the target established in that historic legislation.

The President's FY 2005 budget proposal for NSF amounts to a 3 percent increase over the FY 2004 level. However, of the total increase, which is $167 million, over $75 million of that growth will be directed to the internal operations and staffing needs of the Foundation. The result is that the real increase available to support the activities of the research and education community is less than $100 million or 1.6 percent above the FY 2004 level.

Support for Research and Related Activities is set to increase by just over $200 million or 4.7 percent. However, under the President's proposal, $80 million of the $200 million increase would be used to phase out of NSF's Math Science Partnership program, leaving only a $120 million - or 3 percent — increase for NSF's individual investigator and research centers programs. In previous years, the Math Science Partnership program was funded out of the education and human resources account at $140 million annually.

NSF's research directorates, except for the Engineering and the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) directorates, each increase by 2.2 percent. The Engineering directorate would grow by 1.9 percent and the SBE directorate would increase by 10.3 percent. While many of the directorates receive the same 2.2 percent increase, the way that increase is distributed within the directorates reveals some interesting decisions. For example, in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering directorate, the information technology research category is reduced by $40 million or 18.3 percent; while funding for computer and network systems; computing and communications; and information and intelligent systems would increase by over 15 percent each. Support for shared cyberinfrastructure is proposed to increase by 9.7 percent. In the Geosciences directorate, the increases for earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences are more evenly balanced with each division getting between 2 and 3 percent growth.

Finally, the President's budget proposes to dramatically reduce NSF's precollege math and science education programs, selected undergraduate and community college programs, and programs for historically black colleges and universities by $168 million or 18 percent below the FY 2004 level. In addition to the elimination of the $140 million Math Science Partnership program, other programmatic decreases in the Education and Human Resources directorate include:

• Informal science education declines by $12 million to $50 million;
• STEM Talent Expansion Program (often referred to as "tech talent") is reduced by $10 million to $15 million;
• Advanced Technological Education program for community colleges is reduced by $7 million to $38 million; and
• Robert Noyce Scholarship program is cut in half from $8 million to $4 million.

NSF Priority Initiatives

Within the NSF budget request, as in previous years, are a number of cross-cutting, interdisciplinary priority areas. In the FY 2005 request NSF has identified the following "priority areas" for support:

Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE): BE, a priority area for the past few years, explores the complex interactions among organisms and their environment at all scales and through space and time. Research on the complex interactions between freshwater and the rest of the environment will be encouraged in FY 2005.

Human and Social Dynamics (HSD): HSD will fund research on a range of topics from individual decision-making and risk, to the dynamics of human behavior, to global agents of change such as democratization, globalization and war. Support will also be provided for methodological capabilities in spatial social science and for instrumentation and data resources infrastructure.

Mathematical Sciences: The Mathematical Sciences priority area, which is level funded with FY 2004, will focus on fundamental research in mathematical and statistical sciences, interdisciplinary research connecting the mathematical sciences with science and engineering and targeted investments in mathematical sciences training activities.

Nanoscale Science and Engineering: NSF's investment in Nanoscale Science and Engineering increases by over 20 percent and targets the fundamental research that underlies nanotechnology, likely to be the next transformational technology. Investments in this priority area will emphasize research on nanoscale structures and phenomena and quantum control. NSF is the lead agency for the government-wide National Nanotechnology Initiative.

Workforce for the 21st Century: The FY 2005 request provides $20 million to initiate the Workforce for the 21st Century priority area, which aims to strengthen the nation's capability to produce world-class scientists and engineers and a general workforce with the science, engineering, mathematics and technology skills to thrive in the 21st Century workplace.

Information Technology Research (ITR): was a priority area, initiated in FY 2000 and funded through FY 2004. Beginning in FY 2005, activities funded through ITR investments will be merged into new and ongoing research programs across NSF and apparently will no longer be considered a priority area.

Infrastructure: The FY 2005 request includes $1.47 billion for the tools necessary to conduct cutting edge research, an increase of $104.19 million over the FY 2004 estimate. Consistent with the recent recommendations of the National Science Board, the increase continues an accelerated program to revitalize and upgrade the nation's aging infrastructure through broadly distributed investments in small, mid-sized and major research instruments and tools.

Cyberinfrastructure: In FY 2005, a total of nearly $400 million supports the expansion of state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure. NSF will invest in research to develop new generations of cyberinfrastructure and new capabilities for cyber-science.

Other Initiatives:

Science and Technology Centers (STCs): The FY 2005 request provides $30 million to initiate a new cohort of six Science and Technology Centers. The Science and Technology Centers Integrative Partnerships Program supports innovation in the integrated conduct of research, education and knowledge transfer in fields of basic science, mathematics and engineering. The total FY 2005 Request of $72.39 million also provides $42.39 million for continuing support of eleven ongoing STCs.

Science of Learning Centers: The FY 2005 budget provides $20 million to continue support for multidisciplinary, multi-institutional Science of Learning Centers. These centers will advance understanding of learning through research on the learning process, the context of learning and learning technologies.

Other Centers Programs: The FY 2005 request includes increases for a number of key Centers Programs. Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers (NSECs) receive an additional $3.10 million, to a total of $33.79 million. These additional funds will support two new nanotechnology centers with multidisciplinary capabilities and will enhance award size of some existing centers. Following recommendations from the "Twenty-Year Review of the NSF LTER Program," the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) investment increases by $2.30 million, to a total of $22.82 million. Increased funding will provide incentives for interdisciplinary collaborations at LTER sites. Funding of $3.50 million will support two or three centers that advance fundamental knowledge about Environmental Social and Behavioral Science. Activity in these centers will build on groundwork laid by the Human Dimensions of Global Change centers. The Request also provides increases totaling $6.09 million for a number of mathematical and physical science centers, including: Chemistry Centers, Materials Centers, Mathematical Sciences Research Institutes and Physics Frontiers Centers. NSF investments in Engineering Research Centers continue to focus on next-generation advances in complex engineered systems.

Fundamental Research to Enhance Homeland Security: The FY 2005 request includes investments in fundamental research that will address new homeland security challenges facing the nation. The request includes funding for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases program and national security-related information technology research.

Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI): The request proposes that in FY 2005, NSF continue to support the interdisciplinary centers being established in FY 2004 to explore Decision-Making Under Uncertainty. These Centers will improve understanding of risk management, risk communication and decision making in relation to climate change. The FY 2005 request also supports improved climate modeling through investments in the Community Climate Science Model.

Graduate fellowships and stipends. The FY 2005 budget funds significant expansion from a projected 5,000 fellowships in FY 2004 to 5,500 fellowships in NSF's flagship graduate student investment programs: Graduate Research Fellowships (GRF), Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) and Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeships (IGERT). FY 2005 stipend levels for fellows will remain at the $30,000 level established in FY 2004. Extending these increases to more graduate and postdoctoral students continues to be a high priority, long-range investment strategy for NSF. Total FY 2005 funding for these three programs is $240.74 million, $26.62 million over the FY 2004 estimate.