OMB’s FY 2024 budget guidance for federal agencies adds R&D priorities, specificity

Each summer, the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy distributes a memorandum to all of the executive departments and agencies that are planning to request any research and development funding for a future federal fiscal year that touches on issues or interests that cross multiple agencies. The memo outlines the highest R&D and innovation policy priorities for the administration. At nine pages and nearly twice as long as the Biden administration’s first such missive last year, the fiscal year 2024 memo, released July 22, 2022, reflects the more refined strategy one might expect as an administration matures. All themes are carried forward, most with greater detail, but additional priorities are also included.

The most significant addition is the goal of “reducing the death rate from cancer by half” over the next 25 years. Five focus areas are outlined for agencies to prioritize and collaborate on toward the Cancer Moonshot:

• Closing the screening gap;
• Understanding and addressing environmental and toxic exposure;
• Decreasing the impact of preventable cancers;
• Bringing cutting-edge research through the pipeline to patients and communities; and,
• Supporting patients and caregivers.

Tackling climate change remains a top priority and garners the longest section of the memorandum. Priorities described in some detail include: climate science, clean energy innovation, climate technology, infrastructure, nature-based climate solutions, greenhouse gas monitoring, and climate change adaptation and resilience.

The remaining four R&D priorities for federal agencies also mirror the innovation agendas found across states and TBED organizations across the country, suggesting even stronger opportunities for furthering state-federal collaboration, funding partnerships and strategic coordination of innovation investments. The four are:

1. Advancing national security and technological competitiveness – prioritizing critical and emerging technologies, commercialization and scaling new technologies and innovations, catastrophic risk mitigation, and international cooperation.
2. Innovating for equity – new programs and innovative funding mechanisms to equip under-resourced institutions, populations and underserved geographies; equitable data infrastructure and interoperability; and actionable measures for addressing equitable outcomes
3. Cultivating equitable STEM education, engagement and workforce systems.
4. Promoting open science and community-engaged R&D.

The full Multi-agency R&D Priorities for the FY 2024 Budget is available here.