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Over the past week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations has passed bills to fund commerce and science, transportation, energy and water and agriculture. Regional Innovation Strategies would be funded at $21 million, an increase of $4 million over FY 2017. Other innovation proposals received mixed support, as the Senate cut $3.2 billion from commerce, justice and science funding and another $400 million from agriculture.

The House Appropriations Committee began releasing FY 2018 “markup” budget bills this week, and the proposals would cut billions in non-defense spending. EDA would lose $100 million* in funding, SBA’s entrepreneurial development programs would lose $34 million, NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership would lose $30 million, and Energy’s ARPA-E would be eliminated, among other cuts. As SSTI noted for both the administration’s proposed FY 2017 and FY 2018 budgets, congressional statements rejecting the president’s total budget package did not necessarily make innovation safe.

Unless otherwise noted, all FY 2018 figures are from the foundation’s budget justification, and, to provide the most detailed funding comparison, FY 2016 actuals were taken from the budget justification.

Research-performing institutions of higher education increased their science and engineering (S&E) research space by only 1.4 percent from FY 2013 to FY 2015, according to the biennial  Survey of Science and Engineering Research Facilities, the lowest two-year percentage increase since NSF started collecting the data in 1988.  In FY 2015, total research space reached 214.7 million net assignable square feet (NASF) – an increase of 2.9 million in NASF from 211.8 million in FY 2013. The rate of increase was substantially below the average two-year growth rate (4.9 percent), as measured from FY 1988 to FY 2015.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) released a solicitation committing up to $8 million to support between one and seven Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Nodes. The nodes are part of I-Corps’ National Innovation Network that builds upon fundamental research with the goal of dramatically reducing the period of time necessary to bring a promising idea from its inception to widespread implementation. NSF will support new or previously funded Nodes that will foster understanding on how to:

Last week, Congress passed the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act (S. 3084), which reauthorizes the America COMPETES Act. The Act does not include any funding levels for any of the programs or agencies reauthorized in the bill but does reinforce Congress’s support for research and makes adjustments to some programs. One crucial component of the bill adjusts the cost share requirement for NIST’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership to 1:1 throughout the new authorization period. In a press release, Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) emphasized that the act will also provide agencies more leeway to adjust EPSCoR solicitations and encourage NSF to expand I-Corps through agreements with other federal agencies, state and local governments, and follow-on grants.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) estimates that U.S. research and development (R&D) funding reached an all-time high of $499.3 billion in 2015 – an increase of approximately $21.6 billion over 2014 levels ($477.7 billion). The $21.6 billion increase marks the third time in three years that overall U.S. R&D funding grew by more than $20 billion – $20.4 billion in 2013 and $21.1 billion in 2014.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is seeking preliminary proposals for $18.5 million in funding to support the Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC) program. The NSF expects to make 18–29 awards in the following four categories:

Cornell University has been selected to host a new Innovation Corps (I-Corps) node through a grant provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It, along with four other existing hubs, received new grants ranging between $3.4 million and $4.2 million to be awarded over a five-year period. The I-Corps nodes are designed to support research and innovation and teach entrepreneurship in higher education. The New York area node, with Cornell University as the lead institution and partners Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester, is intended to increase the success rate of technology startup teams forming in colleges and universities in the Northeast, including upstate NY. A network of business mentors for academic inventors will be established through the new node and the evaluation team will work to achieve economic development, education, and workforce development outcomes.

U.S. research and development (R&D) performance rose to $477.7 billion in 2014 – an increase of $21.1 billion over 2013, according to a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) InfoBrief. When adjusted for inflation, growth in U.S. total R&D performance (1.2 percent annually between 2008 and 2014) matched the average pace of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). Of the $477.7 billion in R&D funding, approximately 63 percent ($300.1 billion) went to experimental development with the remaining 37 percent supporting basic research ($84 billion) and applied research ($93.6 billion).