AAS Public Policy Blog

Here is a pdf link to the Mathematical and Physical Sciences FY 2010 budget request. The complete NSF FY 2010 budget table of contents is online. Astronomical Sciences FY 2010 request is $250.8 million, a 9.7% increase over the FY 2009 plan. That increase over FY 2009 does not include the $85.8 million that NSF estimates AST will receive from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus bill).

Astronomy is also featured in the facilities chapter of the request and the MREFC chapter. The latter notes that the ATST (Advanced Technology Solar Telescope) initial construction is being funded with $146 million from the stimulus bill.

Additional details below for specific NSF AST activities:

Individual investigator program (+7.50 million, to a total of $57.0 million). This is primarily for activities in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grants and the Education and Special Programs, to address priorities expressed in the Interagency plan for the Physics of the Universe program.
CAREER program (+$1.0 million, to a total of $4.10 million). This is to increase the division’s support for beginning faculty.

Instrumentation Activities (+$8.25 million, to a total of $31.53 million). This funds increased activity in partnership with the academic community, taking advantage of opportunities for scientific discovery that requires instrumentation and experimentation at the mid-scale range of $5.0 million to $20 million.

Science and Technology Center for Adaptive Optics Funding ends in FY 2010 as ten year support for this center sunsets as planned.

Astronomy Facilities (+$7.51 million, to a total of $136.19 million). Changes are:

• Gemini Observatory (+$390,000, to a total of $19.10 million). This will enable continued operating and visitor support per the international partnership agreement.
• NAIC (-$1.20 million, to a total of $8.40 million). AST support is reduced following the recommendation of the AST Senior Review. This will result in reduced levels of programming, user support, and observing time.
• Combined NOAO/NSO (+$2.02 million, to a total of $41.60 million). Within this total, funding for NOAO primary operations and maintenance funding increases by $1.92 million to $27.50 million and the Telescope System Instrumentation Program (TSIP), administered through NOAO, increases by $1.0 million to $5.0 million in FY 2010. NSO funding decreases by $900,000 to $9.10 million, with the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) being funded from the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account. For more information on ATST, see the MREFC chapter
• NRAO (-$270.000, to a total of $49.52 million) and ALMA operations ($+$6.57 million, to a total of $17.57 million).

The National Science Foundation has a new page and specifically a new document to potential grant recipients. Some highlights:

The Recovery Act supplements NSF fiscal year 2009 funding by $3.0 billion. NSF currently has many highly rated proposals that it has not been able to fund. For this reason, NSF is planning to use the majority of the $2 billion available in Research and Related Activities for proposals that are already in house and will be reviewed and/or awarded prior to September 30, 2009.
… The Foundation also expects to expeditiously award funds as specified in the Recovery Act for: the Math and Science Partnership program (funded at $25 million); the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (funded at $60 million); the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction Account (funded at $400 million); the Academic Research Infrastructure (ARI) program (funded at $200 million); and the Science Masters program, (funded at $15 million). Solicitations for these latter two programs will be posted this spring.
… NSF will post a solicitation this spring for the Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) in order to make a sufficient number of awards to utilize the $300 million provided in the legislation. The Foundation currently anticipates that no other solicitations will be posted that are solely in response to the Recovery Act. … In keeping with this, NSF’s overall framework for Recovery Act investments emphasizes the following:

• All grants issued with Recovery Act funds will be standard grants with durations of up to 5 years. This approach will allow NSF to structure a sustainable portfolio.
• Funding of new Principal Investigators and high-risk, high-return research will be top priorities.

With the exception of the MRI, ARI and Science Masters programs, the majority of proposals eligible for Recovery Act funding include those that are already in house and will be reviewed and/or awarded prior to September 30, 2009.

NSF also will consider proposals declined on or after October 1, 2008. The reversal of the decision to decline must be based on both the high quality of the reviews received on the initial submission and the lack of available funding at the time the original decision was made. The cognizant program officer will contact the institution when a reversal is being considered by NSF. Specific procedural information regarding this new process is available on the NSF Recovery website.

The AAAS has released an analysis of R&D funding in the recently signed into law:

AAAS estimates that the final version of the 2009 economic stimulus appropriations bill contains $21.5 billion in federal research and development (R&D) funding, $18.0 billion for the conduct of R&D and $3.5 billion for R&D facilities and capital equipment (see Table). The final bill contains far more in R&D funding than the $13.2 billion in the House or the $17.8 billion in the Senate versions of the bill.

The three agencies highlighted for their support of economic competitiveness-related basic research in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 and President Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) would receive $5.2 billion in the final stimulus bill.

The House appropriations committee has posted links to a summary and Bill text in two parts.

The press release / summary confirms the House science numbers prevailed:

Science

• $1 billion total for NASA.
• $3 billion total for National Science Foundation (NSF).
• $2 billion total for Science at the Department of Energy including $400 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E). >
• $830 million total for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

Votes are possible today in the House. Congressional leadership has indicated they want President Obama to be able to sign the bill by President’s Day on Monday.

Several summaries are circulating today on the stimulus bill – these reports, out of the Speaker’s office, indicate Science did quite well. Specifically:

• Provides $3 billion for the National Science Foundation, for basic research in fundamental science and engineering – which spurs discovery and innovation.
• Provides $1.6 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which funds research in such areas as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics, nuclear physics and fusion energy sciences – areas crucial to our energy future.
• Provides $400 million for the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to support high-risk, high-payoff research into energy sources and energy efficiency in collaboration with industry.
• Provides $8.5 billion for NIH, including expanding good jobs in biomedical research to study diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, and heart disease.
• Provides $1 billion for NASA, including $400 million to put more scientists to work doing climate change research.
• Provides $1.5 billion for NIH to renovate university research facilities and help them compete for biomedical research grants.

However, as of 3ET, there seems to be a delay in an official release of the final bill, so it may be just a bit early to know if these numbers are final.

Also, Reps. Holt and Eshoo argue for that science spending is stimulus today in The Hill. Representative Holt is one of three Ph.D. physicists in the House.

The Senate has name the following members to the House-Senate conference committee that will negotiate with the House the final version of the stimulus bill. They are:

Harry Reid (D-NV), Dan Inouye (D-HI), Max Baucus (D-MT), Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Thad Cochran (R-MS)

For some background reading on Conference committees check out this document from the Congressional Research Service.

Update House members too: David Obey (D-WI-07), Charlie Rangel (D-NY-15), Henry Waxman (D-CA-30), Jerry Lewis (R-CA-41), and Dave Camp (R-MI-04).

Update II The AAAS has some details on the R&D money in the stimulus bill.

A Senate press release details the Science money in the stimulus bill.

The NSF receives less than in the House version, NASA receives more (but the more for Constellation and Aeronautics, science gets $100 million less than the House version) . A House/Senate conference committee to reconcile the two bills is likely.

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Research: $1.2 billion total for NSF including: $1 billion to help America compete globally; $150 million for scientific infrastructure; and $50 million for competitive grants to improve the quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): $1.3 billion total for NASA including: $450 million for Earth science missions to provide critical data about the Earth’s resources and climate; $200 million to enable research and testing of environmentally responsible aircraft and for verification and validation methods for complex aerospace systems and software; $450 million to reduce the gap in time that the U.S. does not have a vehicle to access the International Space Station; and $200 million for repair, upgrade and construction at NASA facilities.

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): $1 billion total for NOAA, including $645 million to construct and repair NOAA facilities, equipment and vessels to reduce the Nation’s coastal charting backlog, upgrade supercomputer infrastructure for climate research, and restore critical habitat around the Nation.

• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): $475 million total for NIST including: $307 million for renovation of NIST facilities and new laboratories using green technologies; $168 million for scientific and technical research at NIST to strengthen the agency’s IT infrastructure; provide additional NIST research fellowships; provide substantial funding for advanced research and measurement equipment and supplies; increase external grants for NIST-related research.

• The Department of Energy’s Science program sees $330 million for laboratory infrastructure and construction.

Based on this list, it would seem that the NSF survived in the stimulus; though it’s been reduced to $1.2 billion from $1.4 billion. The House number was $3 billion. Assuming the Senate version passes and this list is accurate, it’ll take a conference committee to hammer out the differences in the House and Senate bills, as well as input from the White House.