Unless Congress and the White House take action by the end of the year, across-the-board spending reductions will go into effect for all federal agencies as a result of provisions in the Budget Control Act of 2011. The budget sequestration would reduce defense discretionary funding by 9.4 percent and non-defense funding by 8.2 percent from the 2011 baseline.
In his FY15 budget, President Obama proposed a sweeping, multi-agency push for new research and improved infrastructure to combat the effects of global climate change. Though the budget has not found much support in Congress, the administration has begun moving forward with other parts of the climate strategy, launching a Climate Data Initiative to make potentially valuable climate data available to entrepreneurs developing climate-related products. NASA and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are launching an innovation challenge to encourage software and app developers to make use of the new open data resources.
Last week, the Obama administration announced that it would commit $200 million to establish three new manufacturing innovation institutions in 2013 (see the May 8, 2013 issue of the digest).
The Obama Administration has released details on this year's $26 million Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, a multi-agency initiative to assist in the development and implementation of regionally-driven economic development strategies that support advanced manufacturing and cluster development. The challenge will fund approximately 12 new awards, each with a project period of up to three years. The deadline for applications is July 9, 2012.