WASHINGTON — Influential members of Congress are on a path to increase nanotechnology spending within the National Science Foundation over and above the increase President Bush called for in his 2003 budget.
The bill, called the “Investing in America’s Future Act,” sponsored by Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., and co-sponsored by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-NY, chairman of the powerful House Science Committee, would increase nanotechnology spending at NSF in 2003 from Bush’s request of $221 million to $238 million.
Overall, the authorization bill seeks to boost the NSF budget by 15 percent each year between 2003 and 2005. The hope is to double NSF’s budget within five years.
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Calling the push for more NSF and nanotechnology money “fantastic,” nanotechnology scientist and entrepeneur Chad Mirkin said the federal government’s commitment to nanotechnology is imperative. And the NSF’s approach to research, he said, has the most potential for sparking groundbreaking innovations in the field.
“The NSF is interesting because it’s one of the only organizations that focuses on nonmission research, and it builds the foundation for more technological-driven research,” said Mirkin, a professor of chemistry and the director of the Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University. “If you focus on just refining what we already have you won’t make many breakthrough developments. (NSF) funds blue-sky research that leads to discoveries” that launch powerful new technologies and industries.
The Institute for Nanotechnology hosts one of only six NSF-funded Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers in the country.
The NSF has historically been the biggest recipient of nanotechnology research funds in the federal government, with the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy following relatively close behind and a smattering of other agencies picking up much smaller investments. In fiscal year 2003, the president’s budget calls for spending $710 million on nanotechnology.
The bill was passed out of a subcommittee last week, and is slated for debate by the full science committee on May 22, said Heidi Tringe, communications director for the science committee. If the committee endorses the authorization bill, it then must be voted on first by House appropriators and then head to the full House of Representatives for a vote. The Senate, too, must endorse any spending plan before it heads to the president’s desk for signature.
Clearly, it’s a long road ahead for the bill, but getting budget numbers codified in an authorization bill is the first — and a very important — step.
Tringe said lawmakers on the Subcommittee on Research, which endorsed the authorization bill, are keenly aware of the scientific, industrial and commercial possibilities of nanotechnology.
“I think that Science Committee and Mr. Boehlert in particular realize that this new field has such incredible potential,” she said. “They really wanted to recognize that in this important legislation.” She said lawmakers decided to keep the authorization bill at three years — and for nanotechnology, it only makes recommendations for 2003 and 2004 — because committee members wanted dollar amounts to remain flexible in the most volatile areas, where scientific progress and promise might call for more dramatic increases.
The bill seeks to put the NSF on a similar funding trajectory to the National Institutes of Health, a federal agency that received historic funding boosts in last year’s budget and is set to get enormous increases again this year. Boehlert championed the president’s commitment to life-sciences research, but he added that the research portfolio must be expanded to other research areas with equal vigor.
“NIH does not and cannot fund the full range of research activities the nation needs to remain prosperous — and healthy,” he said during a news conference. “NSF has the broadest research mission of any federal science agency and the clearest educational mission. It needs the funding that goes with that expansive — and expensive — mandate.”
The bill addresses the entire NSF budget, but nanotechnology was one of the first areas Boehlert mentioned in his news conference, saying nanotechnology and information technology research are “of critical importance to the future of the nation’s economy.”
Smith, too, singled out nanotechnology as one of a handful of “promising advancements that are on the horizon” during the news conference.