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MORE DETAILS ON THE ADMINISTRATION'S FY 2011 SCIENCE BUDGET REQUESTS: Following introduction of the President's Budget Request for FY 2011 last month, SPIE has prepared a FY 2011 Budget Scorecard to help members keep track of the FY 2011 appropriations process as Congress considers how to actually fund key science agencies.
HOUSE S&T COMMITTEE BEGINS AMERICA COMPETES ACT WORK: Retiring House Science & Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) began hearings on 20 January to reauthorize the America COMPETES Act. Gordon called the COMPETES Act reauthorization "one of the most important efforts of this year to reauthorize our committee's landmark legislation."
GORDON ON ARPA-E: Gordon also commented that the Advance Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) had received its first appropriation of $400 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and that it received 3,700 initial concept papers in 2009. ARPA-E requested 3,034 full proposals, resulting in 37 being accepted for first round funding. Gordon concluded his opening remarks by noting the importance of consistent R&D funding saying, "As we learned from The Gathering Storm (report) in order to create a sustained, well-educated workforce for an innovative economy, we need to establish sustained funding streams for these programs."
HALL CAUTIONS DEMS ON SCIENCE SPENDING: A cautionary note was sounded by the S&T Committee's Ranking Member, Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX). Although Hall was also optimistic about COMPETES reauthorization, he said that while the importance of COMPETES investments "…hasn't changed - our economy has." He continued, "In COMPETES we set out to double funding for the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the DOE's Office of Science over a 10 year period. By the time we got through conference this timetable was accelerated to seven years. Plus, these agencies received enormous amounts of stimulus funding - the results of which have yet to be seen, and that goes for COMPETES and for the stimulus funding. Hall urged the Committee to "proceed cautiously through this reauthorization process. I believe it's prudent for us to ensure we are reaping the benefits of the numerous initiatives already set forth in America COMPETES before creating others."
SPIE CO-SPONSORS STATE STEM ED REPORT CARD SERIES FOR 2010: If you are interested in how your own state ranks in terms of 39 key Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Education metrics, check out the 2010 version of the State STEM ED Report Cards, co-sponsored by SPIE and five other organizations.
SCIENCE & ENGINEERING INDICATORS 2010 NOW AVAILABLE: SPIE Attended the National Science Board's release of its Science and Engineering Indicators 2010 report on 18 January. This report, produced every two years, is the major authoritative source of U.S. and international data on science, engineering, and technology and is packed with a wealth of indicators on research and development (R&D) spending, trends in higher education and workforce development in science and engineering (S&E) fields, public attitudes toward science and technology, and new patterns of international collaboration in research. According to Kei Koizumi, of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), "In a way, it's like a report card on U.S. science, engineering, and technology, comparing U.S. performance with other nations. It also tells us where the U.S. stands and compared other nations." OSTP Director John Holdren, who also serves as President Obama's science adviser, received the 2010 edition of Indicators on behalf of the President and said that it would be put to good use in government policymaking. He declared, "OSTP, as the lead policymaking body within the White House for matters related to science, engineering, and technology, recognizes that good science and technology policy depends on reliable, comprehensive, and useful data.
EDUCATE TO INNOVATE CAMPAIGN BEGINS: President Obama announced a new set of public-private partnerships in the Educate to Innovate campaign in November that is getting more attention now that the various agency education budgets have been presented to Congress. Committing more than $250 million in private resources to attract, develop, reward, and retain STEM teachers. This initiative is responsive to data, presented in Chapter 1 of Indicators, showing that U.S. 15-year-olds are losing ground in science and math achievement compared to their peers around the world.
FRAMEWORK FOR NEW MANUFACTURING STRATEGY PRESENTED: The U.S. Administration announced its new Framework for Revitalizing American Manufacturing as part of its efforts to revitalize a strategically weak link in the economy. The framework document, released in December, sets forth broad policy vision for reviving U.S. manufacturing. It shows us the U.S. is still, by far, the world leader in value-added manufacturing. But we also know from Indicators that recent trends haven't been favorable for the U.S. because of the increasing importance of East Asian economies in high value-added manufacturing. Most of these data don't yet incorporate the impacts of the global recession, but they begin to tell a worrying story. So evidence from Indicators on the decline of U.S. venture-capital funding in 2008, for example, supplemented by more recent data, help explain why increasing access to capital for new businesses is a key component of both the Administration's Manufacturing Strategy and its broader Innovation Strategy."
SBIR REAUTHORIATION SAGA CONTINUES WITH ANOTHER EXTENSION THROUGH APRIL 30, 2010: The U.S. Senate approved extension of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs in late January, which without the extension would have expired on January 31. Upon passage of the extension, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Mary Landrieu (D-LA) issued the following statement:
"A three-month extension of the SBA and its programs, including important programs to spur innovation and research, ensures that these programs will persist while we continue negotiations with the House to reach a strong compromise on the future of the SBIR and STTR programs. These research initiatives are vital to our country's competitiveness and to job creation, as about 20 percent of SBIR participants say they started their company in part because of a prospective SBIR award. As we seek to improve the economy and create jobs, now is not the time to let these job-creating programs slip by the wayside.
According to Landrieu, small firms employ 41% of the nation's high-tech workers and generate 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large firms. The SBIR program alone has generated more than 84,000 patents and millions of jobs. Eleven federal agencies participate in the SBIR program - including the Department of Defense and National Science Foundation - allocating 2.5% of their extramural research and development dollars for the program.
CONGRESSIONAL VISITS DAY 2010 ON THE HORIZON: Preparations are being finalized for the 14th annual Science-Engineering-Technology Congressional Visits Day on April 28 & 29 in Washington, DC. If you are interested in participation, contact us at allisonr@spie.org.
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