Chronicle of Higher Education - web daily - Wednesday, April 14, 1999
Inconsistencies in Science Budgets May Handicap Academic Research, Report Says
By PAULETTE WALKER CAMPBELL
Washington - The uneven distribution of budget increases among federal agencies that support science and technology could pose serious problems for academic research, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering and the Institute of Medicine.
Since 1994, the budget of the National Institutes of Health has increased 31.2 per cent; the National Science Foundation's budget has increased 15.8 per cent during that time. Conversely, the Department of Defense -- which provides research support for physical sciences and engineering and mathematics -- has had its science-and-technology budget cut by 19.8 per cent during that time.
Under President Clinton's fiscal-2000 budget request, the N.I.H. would receive a modest increase of 2 per cent; the N.S.F., a 7-per-cent increase. The Pentagon's budget for research and development, however, would fall by 5 per cent.
This disparity between the N.I.H. and N.S.F. on one hand and the Defense Department and other agencies on the other threatens to weaken the overall research enterprise, said James J. Duderstadt, the chairman of the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, the group that wrote the report.
"Increases at the N.I.H. have allowed our nation to benefit from the extraordinary opportunities presented in the life sciences," said Mr. Duderstadt, director of the Millennium Project at the University of Michigan, at a news conference Tuesday. "However, successful results from basic research in the life sciences depend on the health of the physical and mathematical sciences, as well as that of other fields.
"The nation must recognize the importance of investing in a balanced way across the broad range of fields to maintain the overall health of the science and technology portfolio," he said.
The report notes that support for physical-sciences and engineering research at the N.S.F. has increased substantially since 1994. But those increases cannot compensate for the declines in support at the Defense Department and other agencies, such as the Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the report states.
Copies of "Observations on the President's Fiscal Year 2000 Federal Science and Technology Budget" can be obtained by writing the National Academy Press, at 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20418, or by calling (202) 334-3313. The cost of the report is $12 (prepaid) each plus $4.50 for shipping. The full text of the report may also be read free on line. (It is a large file that must be viewed with an Adobe Acrobat reader.)