NSF Asks For More Of What Congress Already Likes

14% increase features more for education, academic facilities, and some new projects that look into space. WASHINGTON--This year NSF decided to go with the flow. The 14% increase requested in President Bush's 1991 proposed budget, which continues the pledge first made by President Reagan in 1987 to double the agency's budget in five years, would give more money to several programs that Congress already supports. As a result, foundation officials think their $2.38 billion budget has a better chance of surviving intact than has been the case in recent years, when similar large requests were trimmed sharply. "We have a lot going for us," NSF Director Erich Bloch told members of the National Science Board at its February 9 meeting. "Many of the things that we're asking for are also important themes in the overall budget." He ticked off education, academic facilities, global climate change and the environment, and a high-speed computer network as areas where NSF's request for sizable increases also dovetails with existing congressional support. "I also think that our appropriations subcommittee is in a better situation with respect to its other programs," he said, referring to such programs as housing, veterans care and space. "They won't have to nickel and dime NSF as they have done in the past to make room for somebody else. All in all, if rational thinking prevails, we should have an easier time of it this year." The $20 million request for an academic facilities program is a good example of a bow to political reality. Bloch has long insisted that bricks and mortar are his lowest priority, after human resources and support to individual investigators, and he has testified in the past against such a program on the grounds that it will steal away scarce resources. But last fall Congress put $20 million into the 1990 NSF budget to start such a program and announced it would do likewise in 1991. The administration has apparently decided to be gracious about it. Bloch plans to combine the money into one $40 million program that will be kicked off late in the year. This month, in fact, NSF officials will be filtering through an expected 500 or so preliminary proposals from institutions. Those who make the cut will have until June 15 to submit a final proposal. Institutions are competing in three groups, based on the size of their research budgets, and awards will range from $100,000 to $7 million. The request for the science and engineering education directorate is another example of going with the flow. Educational programs have been a favorite of Congress, especially among House members, ever since the Reagan administration zeroed out the program in its 1982 budget. Since 1987, however, NSF's program has come back with a vengeance, reaching $204 million this year. The 1991 request for $251 million--a 23% increase--will permit NSF officials to expand a range of activities, from grade school to postgraduate training. The activities include a major curriculum development effort in the secondary schools, increased support for undergraduate instrumentation, and expanded activities to attract minority, women, and disabled students into scientific careers. The boost may even be high enough this time to satisfy congressional critics. "The committee is pleased to see that the percentage increase for education is much higher than the increase for research," notes a Senate aide. John Crowley, vice president for the 58-member Association of American Universities, believes that the size of the increase is such that "there's less need for the committee to add to it," as is normally the case. In fact, the imbalance between the 23% hike for education and the 13% increase for the research account--at $1.95 billion it's the lion's share of the overall budget--disturbs some members of the science community. Crowley echoes the comments of officials from the American Physical Society and the American Chemical Society in noting the smallish increases--roughly 5% to 6%--for researchers in those disciplines. "That's barely enough to keep up with inflation," he says. But those figures are misleading, say NSF officials, because they do not take into account large projects that benefit several disciplines. And the 1991 NSF request, despite Bloch's claim that facilities are at the bottom of the budgetary totem pole, is filled with such goodies. The largest is a $47 million request to begin work on two laser interferometer gravitational wave observatories (LIGO). These facilities will consist of two L-shaped detectors, separated by at least 1,000 miles, to measure gravitational waves from distant stars. Their total cost will be $192 million over four years. Since pinpointing a source actually requires four sites, NSF officials are counting on two European collaborations to finance the rest of the observatory. The second boost to the physical sciences is a request to begin work on two 8-meter optical telescopes. Again, the U.S. would bear one-half of the $176 million cost of the telescopes, with the United Kingdom and Canada putting up the rest. The telescopes would take eight years to build, and rely on identical technology. A third large facility in the 1991 budget is continued support for a national high magnetic field laboratory. The $12 million request would continue work slated to begin this year on developing and manufacturing the magnets and other equipment for the facility, at a site that will be chosen this summer. The cost to build and operate the $100 million lab will be shared with academia and industrial users. The 1991 request also includes healthy increases for large, interdisciplinary centers. NSF hopes to receive $52 million--double current funding--to launch between 10 and 12 new science and technology research centers. The idea of such centers touched off a strong protest from those concerned about individual investigators when it was first proposed in 1987, and Bloch was forced to postpone a $20 million round of awards scheduled for this year after Congress trimmed NSF's 1990 request. But the program, despite its focus on basic research and providing opportunities for graduate students, is also seen as an important aspect of the administration's campaign to have industry harvest the fruits of academic research. The first class of 11 such centers was created in December 1988. The 1991 budget also requests an increase of $9 million, for a total of $55 million, in the engineering research centers program. There are now 19 such centers scattered around the country. Still, Bloch admits that the 1991 budget request is far from ideal, either for experienced investigators on small grants or for young scientists trying to gain a foothold in their field. "We'd like to support more people and increase grant size as well," he says. "But those two things are contradictory, given limited resources. Sometimes we try to eke out a few more dollars for investigators, but it's equally important to get new people into the system. I'm not happy with what we have to do, but it's a tough balancing act." Bloch was also philosophical about his own future. For the first time Bloch seemed to acknowledge that he didn't expect President Bush to reappoint him to another six-year term as NSF director. Asked at a January 29 press briefing on the budget to confirm rumors that he would be leaving before the end of his term, Bloch shrugged and replied, "My term expires in August, and I still plan to stay until then. Frankly, I never though that I'd last that long." Finally, NSF is also laying the groundwork for its own construction project--a move to new headquarters in the Washington area. Its 1,200 employees are now divided among two aging buildings whose leases are expiring, and NSF is asking for $5.5 million to prepare for a move that is scheduled to be completed by October 1992. The new building, says Bloch, will give the foundation more room for a steadily growing staff, more conference space for its advisory and peer review panels to meet, and a greater capacity for computer networks and other electronic communications. The site is expected to be chosen shortly, and the total cost of the move is budgeted at $17 million.

NSF Asks For More Of What Congress Already Likes

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