The President’s fiscal year 2009 budget proposal for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) includes a 22% increase in funding for core research and facilities programs, totaling $634 million. This budget continues the Administration’s commitment to work toward doubling NIST’s core budget by 2016 as called for in the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) and authorized through 2010 by the America COMPETES Act.
The proposed NIST research budget includes four new R&D initiatives:
1. Nanotechnology: Environment, Health and Safety Measurements & Standards ($12 million)
2. Measurements and Standards to Accelerate Innovation in the Biosciences ($10 million)
3. Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative: Leap-Ahead Security Technologies ($5 million)
4. Going at Light Speed: Optical Communications and Computing ($5.8 million)
The budget also includes an additional $2 million for the expansion of the NIST Center for Neutron Research and $36.3 million for nine initiatives previously described in the FY 2008 budget, including research programs on quantum information science, nanotechnology, and climate change science.
Keywords: Standards, Research, Nanotechnology, Cyber Security, Measurements
