FLICKR, GAGE SKIDMOREThe Trump administration’s first official memo on science and technology spending, released yesterday (August 17), prioritizes national security and defense, economic prosperity, energy dominance, and public health. The document specifically calls out basic research as “critical,” but states that projects of “greater uncertainty” should give way to those that can be more readily developed into products and services.
According to a Science news report, the administration’s priorities are markedly different from those previously issued by the Obama administration and make no mention of “climate research, Earth observations, and advanced manufacturing.”
As far as basic science pursuits are concerned, the memo states that they “may not provide the economic incentive needed to attract private sector investment. Therefore, agencies should give priority to funding basic and early-stage applied research that, supplemented by private sector financing of later-stage R&D, can result in the development of transformative commercial products and services.”
With deadlines coming up next month for FY2019 budget requests, the annual memo, a collaboration between the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Office of Management and Budget, is meant to ...
