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Federal Document Clearing House
Congressional Testimony
February 13, 2002 Wednesday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 889 words
COMMITTEE:
HOUSE SCIENCE
HEADLINE: THE R & D
BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2003: AN EVALUATION
TESTIMONY-BY: DR. RITA R. COLWELL, DIRECTOR
AFFILIATION: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
BODY: CORRECTED COPY Statement of
Dr. Rita
R. Colwell Director National Science Foundation House Science Committee
February 13, 2002
Chairman Boehlert, Ranking Member Hall, and
Members of the Committee, thank you for providing this opportunity to discuss
the President's budget request for the National Science Foundation.
Every year, the Foundation's optimal use of limited public funds has
relied on two conditions: Ensuring that our research and education investments
are aimed - and continuously re-aimed - at the frontiers of understanding; and
certifying that every dollar goes to competitive, merit-reviewed, and
time-limited awards with clear criteria for success.
When these two
conditions are met, our nation gets the most intellectual and economic leverage
from its research and education investments. The National Science Foundation is
requesting $5.036 billion for FY2003, $240 million or five percent more than the
previous fiscal year. For the United States to stay on the leading edge of
discovery and innovation, we cannot do less. Before providing a few highlights
of the budget, let me stress that the priority setting process at NSF results
from continual consultation with the research community. New programs are added
or enhanced only after seeking the combined expertise and experience of the
science and engineering community, the Director and Deputy, and the National
Science Board. Programs are initiated or enlarged based on considerations of
their intellectual merit, broader impacts of the research, the importance to
science and engineering, balance across fields and disciplines, and synergy with
research in other agencies and nations. NSF coordinates its research with our
sister research agencies both informally -- through the active monitoring by
program officers of other agencies' programs - and formally, through over 150
MOUs and Interagency Agreements that spell out the various agency roles in
research activities.
One of the highlights of the budget is a second
installment of $200 million for the national five-year, $1 billion
Math
and Science Partnership Program. The program links local schools with
colleges and universities to improve pre-K -12 math and science education, train
teachers, and create innovative ways to raise the performance of all students
and schools.
An investment of approximately $37 million will increase
annual stipends for graduate fellows to $25,000 to attract more of the nation's
most promising students to science and engineering.
The budget will also
include funding for six priority areas, including $221 million for
nanotechnology research, $286 million for information technology research, and
$60 million as part of a new priority area in mathematical and statistical
sciences research that will ultimately advance interdisciplinary science and
engineering.
$185 million is directed toward NSF's Learning for the 21st
Century Workforce priority area - including $20 million to fund three to four
new multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional Science of Learning Centers to
enhance our understanding of how we learn, how we remember, and how we can best
use new information technology to promote learning.
We are also
requesting $10 million to seed a new priority area in the social, behavioral,
and economic sciences to explore the complex interactions between new technology
and society to better anticipate and prepare for their consequences.
Finally, the budget requests $79 million for research on biocomplexity
in the environment. This builds upon past investments in the study of the
remarkable and dynamic web of interrelationships that arise when living things
at all levels interact with their environment. Research in two new areas this
year -- microbial genome sequencing and ecology of infectious diseases -- will
help develop strategies to assess and manage the risks of infectious diseases,
invasive species, modified organisms, and biological weapons.
Additionally, as part of the Administration's new multi-agency Climate
Change Research Initiative, we will implement a $15 million research program to
advance understanding in highly focused areas of climate science, to reduce
uncertainty and facilitate policy decisions. Our budget also includes $76
million for programs slated to be transferred to NSF from NOAA, EPA, and the
USGS. The Administration believes that there are advantages to locating these
programs at NSF, which has an outstanding record in administering merit-based
research and education.
In large facilities, we will continue support
for the next phase of construction of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA).
New construction projects in the FY2003 budget include two prototype sites of
the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) at a cost of $12 million to
analyze data to detect abrupt changes or long-term trends in the environment.
The budget also requests $35 million for EarthScope to detect and investigate
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides on the North American continent.
Mr. Chairman, if there are no objections, I would like to include a copy
of the NSF budget summary as part of my testimony, and I would be pleased to
respond to any questions that the committee may have.
LOAD-DATE: February 22, 2002