While most of the institutes are expecting growth of 3 to 5%, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging & Bioengineering is seeking a momentous 135% increase over fiscal 2003 numbers, bringing its funding up to $282 million. The National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases will also receive a larger than average increase of 8.8% for a total request of $4.3 billion. This includes $100 million to continue contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria.

AIDS research at NIH will also see an increase. This year, the budget will grow by $110 million for a total of $2.9 billion. Programs relating to diabetes and obesity will also get increases.

Biodefense research is another area that will see a significant increase. This year's budget requests a 117% increase in funding to $1.6 billion. Not included are intramural and extramural research facilities or one-time anthrax vaccine costs incurred in 2003.

NIH is also requesting an increase of $35 million within the Office of the Director for strategic road map initiatives. The funds will be used to "address critical roadblocks and knowledge gaps that currently constrain rapid progress in biomedical research." The three initiatives categories are new pathways to discovery, multidisciplinary research teams of the future, and reengineering the clinical research enterprise.

This year's budget will allow NIH to award 10,509 competing research project grants, increasing the number by 344 over 2003. Altogether, the total number of research projects for 2004 is an estimated 39,520, up 1,211, with funding expected to increase by 6.3% to $15.2 billion.

NIH Overall, institutes' growth slows to 2% $ MILLIONS 2002a 2003b 2004c CHANGE 2003–04 National Institutes $21,233 $24,561 $25,751 4.8% Cancer 4,178 4,673 4,771 2.1 Allergy & Infectious Diseases 2,340 3,984 4,335 8.8 Heart, Lung & Blood 2,570 2,779 2,868 3.2 General Medical Sciences 1,723 1,874 1,923 2.6 Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases 1,560 1,704 1,820 6.8 Neurological Disorders & Stroke 1,325 1,432 1,469 2.6 Mental Health 1,245 1,344 1,382 2.8 Child Health & Human Development 1,111 1,196 1,245 4.1 Drug Abuse 892 961 996 3.6 Aging 891 958 994 3.8 Environmental Health Sciences 645 685 710 3.6 Eye 580 626 648 3.5 Arthritis & Musculoskeletal & Skin Diseases 448 486 503 3.5 Human Genome Research 428 458 478 4.4 Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism 383 415 430 3.6 Dental & Craniofacial Research 342 370 382 3.2 Deafness & Other Communication Disorders 341 366 380 3.8 Biomedical Imaging & Bioengineering 111 120 282 135.0 Nursing Research 120 130 135 3.8 National Center for Research Resources 1,010 1,090 1,054 –3.3 National Library of Medicine 276 308 316 2.6 Office of the Director 235 254 318 25.2 National Center for Minority Health & Health Disparities 158 186 193 3.8 National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine 104 113 116 2.7 Buildings & facilities 115 769 80 –89.6 Fogarty International Center 57 63 64 1.6 TOTAL $23,188 $27,344 $27,892 2.0% a Actual. b Requested. c Proposed. SOURCE: Office of Management & Budget

 

ENERGY. Department of Energy R&D funding moved up a brisk 6% in the President's 2004 budget request. The largest increases were for research on nuclear weapons and nonproliferation and for R&D to support select energy sources.

For the weapons program, R&D increases were sprinkled throughout the National Nuclear Security Administration budget, but for energy R&D, the budget proposed significant jumps on opposite ends of the spectrum.

At one end, coal and nuclear fuels, mature technologies that face significant problems to hold or expand their current energy role, benefited mightily.

At the other end, hydrogen, a new source with great potential yet few current applications, was also proposed for a big boost. Indeed, hydrogen R&D was the only bright spot in the department's renewable-energy budget portfolio.

To help put the R&D increase to $8.5 billion in perspective, the overall DOE budget also went up 6% to $23.4 billion. The biggest overall increase was $925 million for nuclear weapons and nonproliferation, to $8.8 billion, followed by nuclear weapons waste cleanup with an increase of $353 million, to a total of $8.0 billion.

DOE's Office of Science received a 1.4% increase to $3.3 billion. But Raymond Orbach, the office's director, figured the increase was actually 4.5%. He noted that construction was nearing an end at several labs, particularly the Spallation Neutron Source in Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and now funds used for construction were shifting to operations. Hence, funding for science is on the rise.

Orbach pointed to a half dozen top R&D priorities for the office: rejoining the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) consortium; building a new generation of scientific computing systems; and moving ahead in genomic, climate change, and nanoscale science.

For nanotechnology R&D, he said, $64 million in new funds will bring the total to $196 million for 2004. In particular, the funds will help ramp up construction of nanotechnology research centers at five DOE labs.

Orbach stressed the labs' link, noting their proximity to the centers will allow nanoscale researchers to use the labs' powerful scientific instruments for real-time, in situ observations, while nanotechnology research continues on the atomic level.

Other areas emphasized by Orbach include a $24 million increase to $67 million for the "genomes to life" program to continue the molecular characterization project beyond mapping the human genome.

Orbach closed by noting a small $1 million increase in what he called "our attempt to get back into teaching." He proposed restarting a program dropped in the mid-1990s to bring elementary and high school teachers into DOE labs for short-term science education programs.

The pilot program will bring 60 teachers to Argonne National Lab in 2004. A study of similar science education programs by Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility showed overwhelming evidence that science test scores improved for students whose teachers had taken part in such programs, Orbach said.

Buried in the Science Office budget was $125 million for R&D projects to support environmental cleanups, staff said. Nearly all the funds are for molecular research activities conducted by the Biological & Environmental Research program.

"Very exciting" was William D. Magwood's description of the new budget for the Office of Nuclear Energy, which he directs. The Bush proposal will increase the nuclear science and technology budget by 18.6% to $387.6 million.

About $127 million is in strict R&D, a 41.6% increase over last year. This is a far cry from 1998 when DOE nuclear R&D spending barely topped $2 million. The biggest R&D increase, Magwood noted, is a 245% jump to $63 million for the "advanced fuel cycle initiative" to study spent nuclear fuel reprocessing.

For fossil energy, R&D increased 9% to $519 million. Most ($320.5 million) would be directed to the President's coal research initiative. In all, the Bush Administration seeks $367.5 million for coal research.

Fossil and nuclear research together with the Office of Science all got a piece of the President's new hydrogen agenda, announced in his State of the Union address. DOE officials say the department's hydrogen R&D budget will reach $103.5 million for 2004.

Some $4 million is earmarked for R&D on nuclear power systems to generate hydrogen, $5 million to produce hydrogen from coal, and some $11 million for Science Office hydrogen R&D.

Another $88 million would be spent by the Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Office for vehicular fuel cells and hydrogen infrastructure. Hydrogen was the only energy R&D program not cut by the renewable energy office.

Another area cleaved by the Bush Administration is the Industries of the Future program, from $52.3 million to $24 million. Chemical companies are the largest sector of eight industrial sectors that receive cost-shared R&D grants to fund energy conservation demonstration projects through the program. The chemical industry support would be cut by more than half, from $14.4 million to $6.6 million.

 

ENERGY R&D funding jumps for nuclear, coal, hydrogen $ MILLIONS 2002a 2003b 2004c CHANGE 2003–04 Office of Science $3,309 $3,264 $3,311 1.4% High-energy & nuclear physics 1,048 1,107 1,127 1.8 Basic energy sciences 980 1,019 1,009 –1.0 Biological & environmental research 554 484 500 3.2 Fusion energy 241 257 257 0.0 Scientific computing research 150 167 173 4.2 Other 336 230 245 6.5 National Nuclear Security 2,414 2,438 2,564 5.2 Nuclear weapons 2,155 2,234 2,360 5.6 Nonproliferation 259 204 204 0.0 Energy Resources R&D 2,096 1,857 1,935 4.2 Energy conservation 572 552 520 –5.8 Fossil energy 578 479 519 9.4 Renewable energy 383 407 444 9.1 Nuclear energy 363 327 388 18.6 Environmental cleanup 200 92 64 –30.5 Other major accounts 237 517 725 nm TOTAL $8,056 $8,076 $8,535 6.0% a Actual. b Requested. c Proposed. nm = not meaningful. SOURCES: Department of Energy, Office of Management & Budget

DEFENSE. As usual, the Department of Defense gets the lion's share of research funds. But this total, $61.8 billion, is largely devoted to the development and testing of large weapons programs. More traditional R&D programs will receive only about $10.2 billion of this. And basic research will be cut this year by nearly 8% to just $1.3 billion, slightly less than was funded in 2002.

Congress has generally gone along with reductions in basic research at Defense over the past few years, wanting to see more applications of the research before approving additional funding. The Administration says areas of emphasis for R&D will include computing and communications, sensors, nanotechnology, and hypersonic propulsion systems.

Other priorities are mainly for major weapons or defensive programs. Among these is the continued development of intercepting ballistic missiles, developing high-speed interceptors, directed-energy technologies, and sea-based radars. Continued development and testing of the Joint Strike Fighter and of the Army's Future Combat System for a more mobile and effective fighting force are also priorities.

Research to address terrorist threats is also part of the Defense Department's work. Technologies to defend against chemical and biological agents are being developed. Some of these include improved detectors and sensors, troop protective gear that is lighter and more comfortable, and vaccines to protect against biological agents.

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