An AP article from earlier this week discusses an analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on federal R&D funding. The study finds that while overall federal R&D spending will increase 2.2 percent in 2006 to $135 billion, 97 percent of that increase will go to the Defense Department and NASA; NASA in general will see a 7.3 percent, mostly for CEV development and other exploration programs. Other agencies, however, will see little or no increase in funding in 2006, which is causing some complaints. An example is former NIH director Harold Varmus: “There is a battle for the future in science and technology… Not increasing investments in those areas sends a signal the country is going to regret.” To put things in perspective, although NIH is getting a 0.1 percent budget cut in 2006, its overall budget doubled from 1999 to 2003.
And as usual, we seem unable to make critical distinctions between “science,” “R&D,” and “technology.”
These are all different animals, but they tend to get lumped into the same federal cubbyhole.
In general I couldn’t agree more, though in this case AAAS compiled the figures and to their credit break them down in all kinds of interesting ways:
http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/fy06.htm
Take a look at the Supplemental Tables and Charts:
Historical Federal R&D by Agency, 1976-2006 (current dollars)
Historical Federal R&D by Agency, 1976-2006 (CONSTANT FY 2005 dollars)
Table A. "FS&T Budget" by Agency
Table B. Congressional Earmarks for R&D by Agency and Program
Trends in Federal R&D, FY 1976-2006
FY 2006 R&D Appropriations (Final vs. Request)
Trends in Federal R&D as % of GDP, FY 1976-2006
Trends in Nondefense R&D, FY 1976-2006
Trends in Defense R&D, FY 1976-2006
Trends in Research, FY 1995-2006
Trends in Basic Research, FY 1975-2006
Trends in Federal R&D, FY 1990-2006 (DOD, NIH, NASA, NSF, DOE)
Trends in Federal R&D, FY 1990-2006 (USDA, DOC, DOI, DOT, EPA)
(Jeff, please can you delete previous post as links only working in this one)
In general I couldn’t agree more, though in this case AAAS compiled the figures and to their credit break them down in all kinds of interesting ways:
http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/fy06.htm
Take a look at the Supplemental Tables and Charts:
Table A. "FS&T Budget" by Agency
Table B. Congressional Earmarks for R&D by Agency and Program
Trends in Federal R&D, FY 1976-2006
FY 2006 R&D Appropriations (Final vs. Request)
Trends in Federal R&D as % of GDP, FY 1976-2006
Trends in Nondefense R&D, FY 1976-2006
Trends in Defense R&D, FY 1976-2006
Trends in Research, FY 1995-2006
Trends in Basic Research, FY 1975-2006
Trends in Federal R&D, FY 1990-2006 (DOD, NIH, NASA, NSF, DOE)
Trends in Federal R&D, FY 1990-2006 (USDA, DOC, DOI, DOT, EPA)