In his fiscal year (FY) 2017 budget request to Congress, President Obama is seeking $152 billion for research and development, a four percent increase from the current funding level. The budget request includes a $900 million increase for basic research.
Highlights of proposed FY 2017 include:
- Doubling federal investments in clean energy research and development over the next five years.
- $755 million in new funding for cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment as part of the cancer “moonshot.”
- $2 billion to create a coastal climate change resilience fund to help states and communities to prepare for and adapt to climate change. An additional $750 million would be directed to help developing nations reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts.
- $88 million for NSF to support basic research on water in the hopes of enhancing domestic water supplies and quality.
Details about agency funding proposals will continue to be released over the next week, but this is what is known so far:
- National Science Foundation: $7.96 billion (+$500.5 million). The proposed funding would support 10,100 new grants according to the agency. The Directorate for Biological Sciences would receive a 6.2 percent increase to $790.5 million.
- National Institutes of Health: $33.1 billion (+$1.8 billion). The White House says that this amount of funding will support almost 10,000 new grants.
- Agriculture and Food Research Initiative: $700 million (+$350 million) for competitively awarded extramural research grants.
- Agricultural Research Service: nearly $1.2 billion for intramural research, including $94.5 million to modernize government agricultural research facilities.
- Earth science within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration: $2.0 billion
- Department of Energy, Office of Science: nearly $5.7 billion. The budget proposes a new $100 million competitive grant opportunity targeted solely at university-based researchers.
President Obama Releases His Final Budget Request