Presidential commitment to research and education funds new initiatives

Feature Image: 

When President Obama spoke at the National Academies of Science on April 27, 2009, he announced that he was committed to spending more than 3 percent of U.S. GDP on research and development – though not all of that funding would be federal dollars.

The initiatives he announced include:

• A commitment to finish the 10-year doubling of three key science agencies (National Science Foundation, Department of Energy Office of Science, and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology). Between 2009 and 2016, the Administration’s enacted and proposed budgets would add $42.6 billion to the 2008 budgets for these basic research agencies, with a special emphasis on encouraging high-risk, high-return research and supporting researchers at the beginning of their careers. 
• The launch of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).  ARPA-E is a new Department of Energy organization modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the defense agency that gave us the Internet, stealth aircraft, and many other technological breakthroughs.
• A joint initiative by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation to inspire American students to pursue careers in science, engineering, and entrepreneurship related to clean energy – with programs and scholarships from grade school to graduate school. 

The White House provided a fact sheet with additional detail about the President’s goals and plans.

Video and a transcript of the speech are available online at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/27/The-Necessity-of-Science/