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National Science Foundation FY 02 Budget Request
April 2001
Scientists, engineers and educators in almost every
field are on the threshold of discoveries that could
fundamentally change the products and processes of
industry, spawn whole new sectors of the economy,
and revolutionize teaching and learning at all levels.
The proposed NSF FY 02 budget will help ensure that
the U.S. keeps pace with these expanding opportunities.
FY 02 BUDGET REQUEST
$4.47 billion, an increase of $56.1 million (1.3%)
over FY 2001. (See
budget summary for more details.)
FUNDING BY APPROPRIATION
Funding levels in the FY 02 request for NSF’s five
appropriation accounts are as follows:
Research and Related Activities: $3.33 billion
(.5% under FY 01)
Education and Human Resources: $872 million (11%
over FY 01)
Major Research Equipment: $96 million (20.6% under
FY 01)
Salaries and Expenses: $170 million (5.9% over
FY 01)
Office of Inspector General: $6.8 million (7.8%
over FY 01)
BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS
The request builds on NSF’s strength as the only federal
agency devoted to promoting basic research and education
at all levels and across all fields of science and
engineering. Highlights:
- Math and Science Partnerships Initiative -
to ensure that all K-12 students have the opportunity
to perform to high standards. ($200 million) (See
separate fact sheet)
- Financial Support For Graduate Students -
to increase stipends from $18,000 to $20,500 for
Graduate Research Fellowships, Graduate Teaching
Fellowships in K-12 Education, and Integrative
Graduate Education and Research Traineeships.
(Approx. $8 million over FY 01) (See pg. 4)
- Interdisciplinary Mathematics - a core
investment recognizing the increasingly critical
role of mathematics in advancing interdisciplinary
science. ($20 million - new funding)
(See pg. 4)
In FY 02 this increased investment will focus
on:
management of large data sets;
modeling uncertainty;
prediction of complex non-linear
systems.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY PRIORITY AREAS
In addition to its core investments, NSF identifies
and supports emerging opportunities in priority areas
that hold exceptional promise and address all of NSF’s
strategic goals. These areas are:
- Biocomplexity in the Environment - to investigate
interactions among ecological, social and physical
earth systems. ($58 million, 5.9% over FY 01)
(See pg. 17)
Aims to synthesize environmental
knowledge across fields, systems, time and space
and
to forecast the outcomes of
those interactions.
Invests in development of new
research instruments and software.
- Information Technology Research - to deepen
research on software, networking, scalability,
and communications ($273 million, 5% over FY 01)
(See pg. 19)
Seeks to improve ways to gather,
store, analyze, share and display information.
Special emphasis on interface
of IT and biological research to evoke new
cyber-information infrastructure.
- Nanoscale Science and Engineering - to
explore phenomena at molecular and atomic scales
and new techniques to facilitate a broad range
of applications. ($174 million, 16% over FY 01)
(See pg.21)
Seeks to strengthen U.S. leadership
and boost efforts to build a nanotech-ready
workforce; and to discover
novel phenomena, processes and tools.
Includes investigation of biologically
based systems that exhibit novel properties,
nanoscale control of structure
and composition in new materials, and potential
impact of
nanotechnology on society.
- Learning for the 21st Century -
to expand our understanding of how people learn,
and investigate ways to transfer that knowledge.
($126 million, 3% over FY 01) (See pg. 24)
Explores the potential of information
technology to facilitate and enhance learning.
Seeks to transfer new knowledge
about learning to materials, courses and curricula
(for
ex., digital libraries).
ADDITIONAL BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS
(See pg. 6)
- Children’s Research Initiative (CRI) ($5 million,
maintained at FY 01 level)
- Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive
Research (EPSCoR) ($100 million, maintained at
FY 01 level)
- Plant Genome Research Program ($65 million, maintained
at FY 01 level)
- 2010 Project ($20 million, 33% over FY 01)
- Science and Technology Centers ($26 million)
- Graduate Teaching Fellowships for K-12 Education
(GK-12) ($26 million, 15% over FY 01)
- Increasing Management Efficiency - to improve
NSF ability to manage growing portfolio of activities.
($170 million, 6% over FY 01)
MAJOR RESEARCH EQUIPMENT
This account was reduced nearly 21% from FY 01 because
funding for many projects was completed and there
are no new starts. In FY 02, this account will fund
three continuing projects: (See pg. 49)
Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation ($24
million)
Large Hadron Collider ($17 million)
Terascale Computing System ($55 million)
STRATEGIC GOALS
The request mirrors the three goals of NSF’s strategic
plan:
- People - supporting researchers, students,
and the general public and seeking a diverse,
internationally competitive and globally engaged
workforce. ($1 billion) (See pg. 29)
- Ideas - enabling discovery across the frontier
of science and engineering, connected to learning,
innovation and service to society. ($2.2 billion)
(See pg. 39)
- Tools - providing broadly accessible, state-of-the-art
information bases and shared research and education
tools. ($1 billion) (See pg. 47)
For additional information about the NSF FY02 Budget
Request, see the budget
page.
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