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R&D Budget Watchers Urge Caution Over Optimistic FY99 Proposal On paper, the Clinton Administration's proposed FY 1999 budget appears to be the strongest in years regarding federally supported research and development (R&D), and, if enacted, the nondefense portion of $37.8 billion will be the biggest in history. The proposal requests increased funding across a broad spectrum of programs, and backs several new projects. The National Science Foundation proposes an additional $13.4 million, or 7.2%,
over last year's proposal for its materials research programs. This figure includes $9.12 million more, or 10.2%, for the agency's Materials Research Support Project; $1.98 million more, or 5.1%, for its National Facilities and Instrumentation programs; and $2.33 million more, or 4.0%, for Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers. The latter amount actually represents a larger increase, according to Thomas Weber, the agency's Division Director for Materials Research, because NSF will be phasing out several of its Science and Technology Centers next year.
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Other increases in NSF funding with materials impact include $78 million more for the knowledge and distributed intelligence initiative, an agency-wide effort, part of which will provide tools for remotely accessing information, for extracting knowledge from major databases, and for computer simulations of material; and $88 million more for Life and Earth's Environment, part of which will support efforts to create new and more environmentally benign materials. The Department of Energy FY 1999 proposed budget includes $135 million in new funding to begin construction of the Spallation Neutron Source. The amount will cover the beginning of the detailed design phase. Otherwise, the department plans to maintain current funding levels at all its advanced research facilities. A great deal of the
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