The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Wednesday convened a meeting with leaders of the science research and development community to reassure them that the Obama administration would fight to keep its research and education funding commitments to keep the U.S. competitive.
The White House made the disclosure about the meeting in a blog post late on Thursday.
Kei Koizumi, assistant director for federal R&D at the White House OSTP wrote:
Yesterday, OSTP Director John Holdren and Deputy Director for Policy Tom Kalil hosted a meeting with science and technology (S&T) community leaders. The gathering, held at the White House Conference Center, provided an opportunity to share perspectives on how the current fiscal and policy environment may affect the Nation’s science and engineering enterprise.
Koizumi wrote that Holdren “reiterated the Obama Administration’s commitment to protecting federal investments in research and education in the recent budget agreement and in future budgets.”
Representatives of 18 different groups attended the meeting. They included various science organizations, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Materials Research Society, Association of American Universities, the Semiconductor Industry Association and companies like Microsoft and IBM.
Science and education funding is the top of Silicon Valley’s DC agenda, with many in the community worried that the U.S. is falling behind other countries as they produce more science and engineering graduates than the U.S.
In a policy alert sent out Wednesday, the American Association for the Advancement of Science noted that R&D investment has received “mixed support” in the House. Basic research (research for the sake of research) “has generally been supported,” reports the AAAS, but applied research programs (research with specific goals) saw deep cuts.
There are have also been policy riders added to appropriations bills blocking funding for research into climate change. Meanwhile, the Senate hasn’t hasn’t made as much progress as the House on its appropriations bills.
