Obama investeert in kennis

ScienceInsider geeft een helder
Het youtube-gesprek met de president over zijn plannen ziet u
Here’s some of what the president’s $3.8 trillion 2011 budgetrequest, submitted this morning, could mean for science, ifCongress were to go along:
- A $1 billion increase, to $32.1 billion, for the NationalInstitutes of Health. That 3%-plus boost is aimed at keeping NIH onpace with inflationary costs for doing biomedical research.
- A $550 million boost, to $7.4 billion, for the National ScienceFoundation. Almost all of that 8% increase would go to NSF’s sixresearch directorates, with a special emphasis on clean energy andsustainability. Its education and training programs would rise by2%.
- A $226 million hike, to $5.1 billion, for the Office of Sciencewithin the Department of Energy (DOE). The department’s 3-year-oldeffort to jump-start a low-carbon economy, the Advanced ResearchProjects Agency-Energy, would get $300 million as its first annualbudget. A scaled-down education and training initiative,RE-ENERGYSE, would get $74 million, after Congress rejected a muchlarger program proposed last year.
- A $540 million boost, to $5 billion, for science programswithin NASA. The increase comes as part of the Administration’sproposed reshuffling of priorities on human space exploration. Thatplan includes a heavy-lift rocket for exploration beyond the moonand the commercial sector taking on responsibility for gettingastronauts to the low-Earth-orbit international space station.
- A $164 million jump, to $429 million, in the competitivelyawarded research programs at the U.S. Department ofAgriculture.
- A $67 million increase, to $587 million, for the basic scienceprograms at the National Institute of Standards andTechnology.
NIST is one of three agencies-NSF and DOE’s Office of Scienceround out the trio-that have been promised a doubled researchbudget over 10 years. The Administration’s 2011 budget for allthree is in line with that pledge.
Opmerkelijk: een van de weinige posten die flink omlaag gaat, is debijdrage van de USA aan het kernfusieproject ITER inZuid-Frankrijk. Het Congres had hier al eerder op bezuinigd en depresident vermoedt waarschijnlijk dat hij hier opnieuw de handenniet voor op elkaar zal krijgen.
