Science adviser says concerned ARPA could stretch federal research budget
BYLINE: Angela Y. Hardin
President Bush's science adviser said last week that the federal budget would be stretched further if Congress, as expected, establishes an auxiliary research agency inside the Energy Department.
In remarks to an American Association for the Advancement of Science forum on Thursday, John Marburger stopping short of saying the Bush administration opposed legislation that would establish an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy to tackle high-risk research and development. "We don't have enough money on the table to pay for everything we would like to do," he said.
A House bill (H.R. 363) would create the ARPA-E and authorize $300 million for it in fiscal 2008 and $915 million by fiscal 2014; a Senate version (S. 761) backed by two-thirds of the chamber and passed April 25 does not specify funding for the agency.
Marburger said instead of establishing the agency, "We should be doubling, tripling funding" for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The House and Senate bills support that goal, but do not appropriate any funds.
Bush proposed doubling R&D funding for NIST, the Energy Department's Science Office and the National Science Foundation last year as part of his Advanced Competitiveness Initiative.
Marburger said pressure to increase federal science funding would prompt a need for private funding "mechanisms."
"You can't rely on the federal budget to fund everything," the aide told the AAAS conference. There will have to financial support form states and private enterprise to support a larger cadre of scientists and engineers, he said.
Marburger's comments about the states and industry stepping up to support R&D come at a time when many states have already been doing just that. "[States] are increasingly getting involved ? in technology development issues, nanotechnology and stem cell research," said Susan Hackwood, executive director of the California Council on Science and Technology.
Some states, including Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas, have already developed research funds, said Mary Jo Waits, director of the Pew Center on the States, part of the Pew Charitable Trusts. The center has been studying how states are supporting R&D. It is developing a report for release at the next meeting of the National Governors Association that will provide states with recommendations on structuring such funds, among other things. The report may urge each governor to have a science adviser.
A growing number of states are also already investing in R&D. While their investments are a fraction of federal spending, "it looks like a big percentage in state budgets," Waits said. States are paying for the research by using "earmarked taxes" that have been voted on by the citizens; tobacco settlement money; tax increment financing; bonds; general appropriations funds; and by entering into public and private partnerships, she said.
Some of the recommendations the governors are likely to receive in the forthcoming report include making R&D a part of their innovation strategy, not just the economic development strategy; investing in problems their state faces and developing expertise in those areas; requiring collaboration across scientific disciplines and between universities, industry in state-supported projects; and ensuring continuity of programs across different administrations, she said.
Thomas Bowles, science adviser to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, said driving innovation will require a state to have an integrated strategy, such as provided in the National Academy of Sciences' Rising Above the Gathering Storm report, which recommended stronger federal funding support for S&T as a way to address U.S. energy challenges.
Economic development should also be integrated into a state's innovation strategy, he said. In New Mexico, for example, the Legislature created a computing application center that will merge computing with technology from labs like the Sandia and Los Alamos, and universities and colleges. With satellite centers scattered throughout the state, it will be a resource for science, technology, engineering and math education and potentially "attract kids into S&T." He added, "The goal of the center is to attract technology companies to the state."
Bowles said states will need to provide funding for some of the basic research conducted at universities and other research organizations and legislatures should allow those organizations to control the research, while providing some government oversight. The federal government will continue to be the largest funder of basic research, but the states need to drive the transformation from R&D to commercialization," Bowles said.