Federal R&D: A Quick Recap and Outlook Matt Hourihan February 11, 2014 for the American Society for Engineering Education Public Policy Colloquium AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
Some positive outcomes Defense Science & Technology Department of Energy Low-carbon and fossil energy technology DOE Science (especially fusion) NSF facilities, EPSCoR NASA Science and Exploration
Not-quite-so-positive outcomes Defense contractors NIH overall But better news for IDeA, Translational science High-performance rail Environmental R&D But cuts avoided
Looking ahead… President’s budget to be released March 4 Priorities: manufacturing, clean energy, climate, IT and computing, biological innovation, neuroscience, STEM Ed Discretionary spending in FY 2015 has already been agreed And will increase hardly at all 25% of sequester reductions rolled back Beyond FY 2015: back to sequester levels Big-picture fiscal challenges remain largely unchanged
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