Bump in U.S. Research Funding Goes Mainly to Defense, Space

["David Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Bump in U.S. Research Funding Goes Mainly to Defense, Space From:
   "Barry Ritholtz" <ritholtz () optonline net>
Date:    Mon, January 2, 2006 9:03 am
To:      "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Dave

For IP, if you like.


Bump in U.S. Research Funding Goes Mainly to Defense, Space
Associated Press
January 1, 2006 3:05 p.m.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/print?id=1461126


WASHINGTON -- Defense and space projects account for most increases   in
the $135 billion U.S. federal research and development budget next   year,
a fact that worries scientists who fear that after years of   growth the
nation is beginning to skimp on technology that fuels   marketplace
innovation.

The realignment by Congress of research money toward national defense  
and human space exploration means many universities, institutions and  
scientists will have to scramble for new sources of money or cut back  
current or planned projects.

The National Institutes of Health, the nation's premier biomedical  
research agency, saw its budget doubled between 1999 and 2003 but is  
getting $28.6 billion next year, a 0.1% drop that marks its first   budget
cutback since 1970.

The cut, while small, comes at a time when a lot of research simply  
costs more, even the laboratory mice used in cancer research,
explained Dr. Harold Varmus, a Nobel Prize winner and former NIH   director.

"There is a battle for the future in science and technology. That's   what
is going to govern the future of our country. Not increasing   investments
in those areas sends a signal the country is going to   regret," said Dr.
Varmus, who now heads the Memorial Sloan-Kettering   Cancer Center in New
York.

The Bush administration counters that federal research and
development spending remains near an all-time high and is close to   45%
higher than when the president took office.

That "is a strong statement of the high priority this administration  
places on innovation, competitiveness, science, technology and
research," said Donald Tighe, a spokesman for the Office of Science   and
Technology Policy, which advises the president.

Federal research and development spending will rise $2.2 billion, or  
1.7%, in 2006, to about $135 billion, according to an analysis by the  
American Association for the Advancement of Science. Of that
increase, 97% will go to Department of Defense weapons development   and
National Aeronautics and Space Administration spacecraft
programs, AAAS said.

Funding for other federal R&D increases only slightly, and actually  
falls if adjusted for inflation, AAAS analyst Kei Koizumi said.

"For 2006, for most areas, it's looking pretty bad. The total is   going
to be a new record, but it's going to be big increases in two   areas,"
the analyst said. "Obviously, those are big priorities but in   an overall
budget in which Congress and the president are trying to   cut domestic
spending, all other R&D programs are flat at best and   falling in most
cases."

The nation's universities and research institutes fret that the
emphasis increasingly falls on development, which tends to help
industry, instead of the experimentation and exploration associated   with
basic research.

Research spending is falling or stagnating, disproportionately
hurting the colleges and universities that depend on federal support   to
run their electrical engineering, computer science and other
departments, said Tobin Smith, senior federal relations officer for   the
Association of American Universities. The group's 60 research  
universities account for 60% of federally supported, university-based  
research.

Most immediately, decreased R&D spending will lead to layoffs and   other
cutbacks at some facilities that rely on federal funding,
including the Department of Energy-supported Relativistic Heavy Ion  
Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The Long Island particle collider creates subatomic head-on
collisions between intersecting beams of gold ions, allowing nuclear  
physicists to study what conditions prevailed at the birth of the  
universe.

A roughly $40 million cut to the center, coupled with higher
electricity costs, will force the collider to shut down for the year,  
said Michael Lubell, a City College of New York physicist and
spokesman for the American Physical Society. About 100 workers will   lose
their jobs, he said.

"Once you go down that road it is very difficult to make a U-turn and   go
back to where you were," Mr. Lubell said.

NASA will see a 7.3% increase in R&D funding, much of it for
spacecraft to carry humans to the moon and beyond. R&D spending on   the
departments of Homeland Security, Transportation and Interior,   including
the U.S. Geological Survey, will rise. But spending on   Energy, Commerce
and Agriculture will drop, as it will for the NIH,   AAAS said.

Promoters of basic research said investments made today may not pay   off
for years, if not decades. The National Science Foundation notes   it
supported Google Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page back   when
they were graduate students at Stanford University studying   better ways
of searching for information on the Internet.

"A lot of innovation comes from basic research, and it takes a number   of
years for that basic work to transform itself into innovations,"   said
Sam Rankin, associate executive director of the American
Mathematical Society and chairman of the Coalition for National
Science Funding.

Others say the increased Pentagon spending should help the economy,  
producing more civilian spinoffs than ever before as spending shifts  
from large weapons systems toward networking and information-
processing technologies.

"I would say Pentagon spending on research and development is more  
robust today than at any other time since the 1980s," said Loren  
Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute think tank   in
Arlington, Va. "In addition, it is scattered among more projects   that
have potential civilian applications."

Copyright © 2006 Associated Press



On the Net:

American Association for the Advancement of Science: http://
www.aaas.org/

Office of Science and Technology Policy: http://www.ostp.gov/



Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures





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