SSTI Digest

Unless otherwise noted, all FY 2018 figures are from the department’s budget justification, and all FY 2017 figures are from committee reports for the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017.

The administration’s budget proposal would dramatically reduce funding throughout the EPA. The Office of Science and Technology, which houses the Agency’s R&D and tech transfer initiatives, would be reduced by $263 million to $450.8 million (36.8 percent decrease).

Specific changes to the Office of Science and Technology include eliminating funding for the Science to Achieve Results program, which funds research grants, SBIR contracts and graduate fellowships, as well as the following:

Unless otherwise noted, all FY 2018 figures are from the department’s budget justification, and all FY 2017 figures are from committee reports for the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017.

The Science Mission Directorate within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) would receive $5.7 billion in the president’s proposed FY 2018 budget, a $53.1 million (0.9 percent) decrease from FY 2017. Within the directorate, the following research areas would receive funding:

Unless otherwise noted, all FY 2018 figures are from the foundation’s budget justification, and, to provide the most detailed funding comparison, FY 2016 actuals were taken from the budget justification.

The president’s FY 2018 budget proposal for the National Science Foundation (NSF) would provide $6.7 billion – a $840.9 million (11.2 percent) decrease in funding. Of that amount:

$5.4 billion, a $636.4 million (10.6 percent) decrease, would be designated for research and related activities; $183 million, a $58.7 million (24.3 percent) decrease for R&D facilities and equipment; and, $761 million, a $123.6 million (14 percent) decrease for education and training.

Nearly 90 percent of NSF funding is awarded through a merit-review process that includes distribution of grants and cooperative agreements.

NSF directorates, offices and commission

Unless otherwise noted, all FY 2018 figures are from the other independent agencies’ budget proposal, and all FY 2017 figures are from committee reports for the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017.

The president’s FY 2018 budget proposal includes requests for four regional commissions with the funds appropriated only for the purposes of closure of these commissions, including:

Unless otherwise noted, all figures are from the department’s budget justification.

The administration’s FY 2018 budget would eliminate several programs providing support to entrepreneurs and small businesses, including FAST, a grant program that targets improved participation in SBIR/STTR, particularly for women and minorities, and the Regional Innovation Clusters and Growth Accelerators programs. SBA’s Entrepreneurial Development Programs would be cut by $52.6 million to $192.5 million (21.5 percent decrease), while Business Loan Programs would hold nearly steady at $156.2 million ($1.5 million, 1.0 percent decrease).

Among the cuts to Entrepreneurial Development Programs are several initiatives specifically targeting innovation- and technology-focused entrepreneurship, as depicted in the following table. 

SBA Entrepreneurial Development Programs

One complication for the FY 2018 budget process is that discretionary spending is scheduled to decrease by billions from FY 2017 levels. The reason for this decrease is Congress’ solution to previous spending impasses: the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). This act set limits on how much can be spent on defense and non-defense discretionary spending for future years. While Congress frequently authorizes additional spending beyond the caps the act sets, if they fail to alter the FY 2018 spending level, it would reduce the discretionary budget by $110 billion.

Federal spending on the “discretionary” portion of the budget is determined by BCA, which set limits on spending levels through 2021 as a means of ultimately achieving a relatively lower budget but delaying the policy decisions of how to apply the cuts. Discretionary spending is currently about 30 percent of the federal budget and comprises the appropriations for most initiatives apart from interest payments and mandatory spending (e.g., Social Security, Medicare).

SSTI continues its reporting on actions taken by state legislatures to invest in economic growth through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. This week, we look at the budgets passed and signed by governors in Arizona, where R&D infrastructure will get a boost at the state’s public universities, Montana, which will see an increase in funding for some higher education research facilities, and Nebraska, where the state maintained the amount authorized for funding to small businesses for commercialization activities.

Arizona

The 2017 SSTI Creating a Better Future Award provides the perfect opportunity to show other practitioners, as well as policymakers, the success you have achieved at creating a better future for your region through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. To be eligible, submit a brief application that highlights one of your organization’s most successful initiatives. Award categories encompass research; entrepreneurship and capital; competitive industries and economic opportunity; and, recognition for the most promising initiative. Check out the categories and more information at sstiawards.org.

Visit our SSTI awards resources page for the call for applications, writing samples, and to listen to the information call.

Don’t delay – deadline for applications is May 26. 

In part one of two, SSTI will examine NIH’s proposed changes that will place limits on individual researcher funding.

On May 2, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it intends to implement a new approach to grant funding with the purpose of increasing the number of researchers receiving grants. These proposed changes are due to a highly skewed distribution of NIH funding with 10 percent of NIH-funded investigators receiving over 40 percent of funding. NIH intends to roll out specific policies and procedures as part of the new approach – titled the Grant Support Index (GSI) – that will assess effectiveness of NIH research investments. During this time, NIH also will seek feedback from on how best to implement the individual grant funding limits.

On May 16 of last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally allowed both accredited and non-accredited investors to engage in regulation crowdfunding. Under the new SEC rules, startups and other private companies could offer equity in return for capital to help support business growth. As of May 2017, total contributions under the regulation crowdfunding into startups and small businesses are over the $40 million mark with an average investment of $833 per investor. Using data from the Crowdfund Capital Advisors, Catherine Yushina from Crowdfund Insider highlighted several data points about the first year of regulation crowdfunding:

Adults in Tennessee seeking to return to the classroom will have a new option for free tuition at community colleges, part of an expansion of the Tennessee Promise scholarship program. The newly passed and expanded Tennessee Reconnect legislation extends eligibility for free tuition to persons who have been out of school for longer periods of time or who may have never attended college. It is part of Gov. Bill Haslam’s “Drive to 55” focus, where he hopes to increase the percentage of the state’s adults equipped with a college degree or certificate to 55 percent; it is currently closer to 30 percent in Tennessee. In his press release on the program, Haslam said, “In Tennessee, we’ve determined that the best jobs plan is an education plan.”

In an unexpected twist, the FY 2017 budget passed earlier this month by Congress has more dislikes than likes for evidence-based program and policy design, despite being embraced strongly by both Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama. Masked under a variety of different nomenclatures – performance contracting, social impact bonds, pay for success, for example – evidence-based programming incorporates rigorous metrics to assess the effectiveness of public policy toward meeting its goals and basing expenditures accordingly. The largest initiative testing its merit in federal funding outlays was the Social Innovation Fund, housed within the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). Congress eliminated the entire $54 million for the program, which had supported dozens of pay for success pilot programs across the country.

In the conference report that accompanied the final budget bill, Congress also chastised the U.S. Department of Education for applying pay for success principles without explicit approval from Congress: