Highlights from the President's FY15 National Science Foundation Budget Request

Estimated FY14 funding levels are used for NSF comparisons, unless otherwise noted.

The president’s FY15 budget proposal for the National Science Foundation (NSF) would provide $7.3 billion (1.2 percent increase). Of that amount, $5.8 billion (no change) would be designated for research and related activities, $200.8 million (0.4 percent increase) for R&D facilities and equipment, and $889.8 million (5.2 percent increase) for education and training. The president’s budget proposes three priority goals to improve NSF’s effectiveness and efficiency:

• Increase public access to NSF funded peer-reviewed publications;
• Improve the nation’s capacity in data science; and,
• Optimize the award process to level workload.

Nearly 90 percent of NSF funding is awarded through a merit review process that includes distribution of grants and cooperative agreements. Key initiatives included in the proposal are:

• $213.2 million (7.3 percent decrease) for Cyber-Enabled Materials, Manufacturing and Smart Systems (CEMMSS);
• $139 million (14.1 percent decrease) for Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES);
• $124.8 million (14.2 percent decrease) for Cyberinfrastructure Framework For 21^st Century Science, Engineering And Education (CIF21);
• $99.8 million (20 percent decrease) for Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC);
• $29.3 million for Research at the Interface of Biological, Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Engineering (BioMaPS);
• $29 million (109.4 percent increase) for cognitive science and neuroscience research including NSF’s contribution to the BRAIN initiative ; and,
• $24.9 million (11 percent increase) for NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps).

The FY15 budget request would fund several initiatives that cross several NSF entities including $362 million for clean energy, $415.6 million (6.1 percent decrease) for homeland security activities and $151 million for advanced manufacturing. Other initiatives that cross several entities include:

• Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) — $212.9 million (1.2 percent increase) to support exceptionally promising college and university junior faculty who are committed to the integration of research and education and who are most likely to become the leaders in their respective fields; and,
• Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS) — $23 million (6.1 percent decrease) to identify interdisciplinary research opportunities that will lead to future enhancements in the efficiency by which the radio spectrum is used and increase access to broadband wireless services and other benefits derived from efficient spectrum use.

The budget provides several allocations for NSF contributions to several multiagency initiatives including:

• Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) — $1.2 billion (0.2 percent decrease) to support large-scale networking, cybersecurity, high-confidence software and systems, human-computer interactions and software productivity;

• $409.9 million (0.2 percent decrease) for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI);
• $318 million (1.5 percent increase) for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP);
• $29 million for the National Robotics Initiative (NRI); and,
• $22 million for the Material Genome Initiative (MGI).

Under the proposed budget, NSF would receive $552 million for the administration’s proposed Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative (OGSI) to fund 1,000 new awards across the NSF portfolio to accelerate S&T in key national priority areas such as advanced manufacturing, clean energy, cybersecurity, neuroscience and STEM workforce development.

NSF Centers Programs

NSF requests $240.5 million (10 percent decrease) for center programs, which are the principal means by which NSF fosters interdisciplinary research. Many NSF centers receive additional support from research-based state TBED strategies. NSF programs include:

• Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) — $64 million (6.6 percent decrease) to fund partnerships working toward the development of next-generation advances in engineered systems;
• Materials Research Science & Engineering Centers (MRSECs) — $56 million to support centers that support materials research and education efforts at academic institutions across the country;
• Science & Technology Centers (STCs) — $48.4 million (17.6 percent decrease) to advance interdisciplinary discovery and innovation in both science and engineering through funding for research, education, knowledge transfer and workforce development efforts;
• Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCIs) — $32 million (9.4 percent increase) to support long-term “big questions” in basic chemical research;
• Centers for Analysis & Synthesis — $20.9 million (2.6 percent decrease) toward the development of new tools and standards for the management of biological information and to support data analysis capabilities across the country;
• Nanoscale Science & Engineering Centers  (NSEs) — 12.2 million (14.9 percent decrease) toward research to advance the development of ultra-small technology in electronics, materials, medicine, environmental science and other fields; and,
• Science of Learning Centers (SLCs) — $7 million (63.1 percent decrease) to conduct research that advances the understanding of learning and its social implications.

NSF Directorates, Offices and Commission

NSF is organized into several directorates, offices and a commission. FY15 funding for these entities would include:

The administration FY15 request for research and related activities within NSF directorates and offices would total $7.3 billion (1.2 percent increase). Selected programs from NSF directorates and offices include:

• Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) — $213.7 million (3.8 percent increase) within the Engineering Directorate to support the commercialization and technology transfer efforts of institutions of higher education. Programs of interest within the IPP budget request include Partnership for Innovation program, Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC) program, and Accelerating Innovation Research (AIR) program. The IPP administers the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs that would receive $165 million (3.5 percent increase);
• Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) — $159.7 million (0.9 percent increase) within the Office of International and Integrative Activities to promote the development of eligible states’ S&T resources through partnerships involving universities, industry, government and federal R&D enterprise;
• Emerging Frontiers (EF) — $87.6 million (1.8 percent decrease) within the Biological Sciences Directorate to provide funding to identify, incubate and support infrastructure and research areas that transcend scientific disciplines and/or advance the conceptual foundations of biology;
• Division of Emerging Frontiers in Research Innovation (EFRI) — $31.3 million (2.3 percent increase) also administered by the Engineering Directorate to help NSF focus on emerging areas in a timely manner. EFRI recommends, prioritizes and funds interdisciplinary topics at the frontiers of engineering research and education; and,
• Integrated NSF Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education (INSPIRE) — $13.8 million (47.1 percent decrease) within the Office of International and Integrative Activities to support research projects by extramural researchers that address some of the most complicated and pressing scientific problems that lie at the intersection of traditional disciplines. The INSPIRE program is intended to encourage investigators to submit bold, exceptional proposals that some may consider to be at a disadvantage in a standard NSF review process

In line with the administration’s commitment to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education efforts, the FY15 budget would establish NSF as the lead agency for the administration of federal STEM education funding, particularly graduate and undergraduate education. The administration’s budget also would task NSF with supporting research that would strengthen the foundation of STEM education. Centered in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), some key initiatives include:

• $333.4 million (11 percent increase) for Graduate Research Fellowships (GRF) including $7 million for a new initiative to support innovation in graduate education by providing awards to universities to explore novel ideas in student training;
• $118.5 million (33.2 percent increase) for Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE), an initiative for a more extensive coordination of NSF’s undergraduate STEM education investments;
• $102.5 million (10.8 percent increase) would be contributed by NSF for Discovery Research K-12 (DR K-12), a partnership between NSF and the Department of Education to support evidenced- based solutions for improved K-126 mathematics education and knowledge building;
• $75.1 million (0.1 percent decrease) for Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) to support enhanced research experiences for students in their first two years of college; and,
• $58.2 million (5.7 percent increase) for NSF Research Traineeships (NRT) to support effectual innovation and design of graduate programs within specific disciplines.

To broaden participation in STEM, the budget proposes $167.5 million (0.6 percent decrease) to support several initiatives that will increase the number of women, minorities and other underrepresented groups in STEM via investments in education. These initiatives include $14.9 million (9.5 percent decrease) for the Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers (ADVANCE) program that would fund transformative efforts to address the system barriers of women’s full participation in academic STEM.