[News & Analysis] U.S. Science Funding: The Future Is Flat in White House's 2015 Spending Request

Researchers dependent on government funding would face a flat future under the White House's $3.9 trillion budget request for the 2015 fiscal year, which begins 1 October. Overall, it calls for about $135 billion in spending on research and development. That would be a 1.2% increase over 2014 levels, but would not keep pace with the forecast inflation rate of 1.7% for 2015. The biggest civilian science funders—the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy's Office of Science—would all get budget increases that would not keep pace with inflation. The White House also proposed an additional $5.3 billion in science spending that would be paid for by new taxes and policy changes, but Congress is unlikely to go along with that idea. Author: David Malakoff
Source: Science: This Week - Category: Science Authors: Tags: U.S. Science Funding Source Type: research