National Science Foundation Seeks Budget Increase

The National Science Foundation today requested a budget of $7.0 billion for the 2010 fiscal year, the agency announced today.

Meanwhile, the White House today called for a boost in funding to NASA, bringing the space agency's budget to $18.7 billion.

Details on the NSF budget request will be released in April. Meanwhile in a statement today, the NSF said its request includes investments in science and technology designed to foster economic growth, create millions of high-tech, high-wage jobs aimed to allow American workers to lead the global economy, and to improve the quality of life for all Americans and strengthen national security, the agency stated.

"For these reasons, the budget doubles funding for basic research over 10 years, beginning with $3 billion for NSF in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and a 2010 budget that increases NSF funding by $950 million over FY 2008," according to the statement.

Other features:

"Supporting researchers at the beginning of their careers. Ensuring America's economic competitiveness requires that we develop the future scientific and technical workforce for our universities, national labs and companies. To help accomplish these goals, the budget provides substantial increases for NSF's prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship and Faculty Early Career Development programs.

"Strengthening the education of technicians in high-technology fields. The budget increases support for the Advanced Technological Education program, which focuses on two-year colleges and supports partnerships between academic institutions and employers to promote improvement in the education of science and engineering technicians.

"Encouraging promising high-risk research. The budget increases support for exploratory and high-risk research proposals that have that could fundamentally alter our understanding of nature, revolutionize fields of science and lead to radically new technologies.

"Making climate change research and education a priority. The budget supports research to improve our ability to predict future environmental conditions and to develop strategies for responding to global environmental change. The budget establishes a climate change education program to help develop the next generation of environmentally engaged scientists and engineers."

The NSF is an independent federal agency that supports basic research and education across all fields of science and engineering. Its funds reach all 50 states through grants to over 1,900 universities and institutions with more than 11,500 new funding awards annually.