Thursday, February 12, 2009

Stimulus Bill - Almost There!

It's been quite a roller coaster ride for Science in the Stimulus bill. First we got good news with the version that passed though the House of Representatives. Then DOE and NSF got zeroed out in the version that passed through the Senate. And now after the negotiations, there's a lot of hope for funding for the physical sciences after all!

While details are sketchy (meaning we won't know for sure till this thing is approved), the summary of the current version that will make it through the House today and the Senate tomorrow is like this:

NIH: $8.5B for research; $1.5B to renovate university research
facilities

DOE: $1.6B for Office of Science, $400M for ARPA-E, and $30B across
DoE for smartgrid/advanced battery technology/energy efficiencies

NSF: $3B for basic research

NASA: $1B, including $400M for climate change research

NIST: $580M

However, as we have seen the the past, these things can change just like THAT, and we have seen how support for the physical sciences have NOT translated into equitable funding. I'll believe it when I see the funding money in research accounts, and not a second till then.

Zz.

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