R&D Infrastructure and Equipment Budget

This month, the US Office of Science and Technology Policy released a report regarding research infrastructure and instrumentation funding for fiscal 2017. The information in the report is liable to change, as the fiscal 2017 budget has yet to be determined; however, the report also includes budget allocations for R&D facilities construction and research instrumentation for fiscal 2016 (see table, page 9).

In fiscal 2016, the NIH, Nondefense Programs within the DOE, National Science Foundation (NSF), NIST and USDA all showed increases in funding for the construction of R&D facilities and purchasing major capital equipment, with the USDA having the highest budget increase, at over 100%. Out of the institutions listed in the table, only the EPA had no change to its budget.

The Office of Science and Technology’s report defines R&D as systematic work undertaken for the purpose of increasing knowledge and using this knowledge to create new applications. The category includes administrative expenses for R&D-related services. Funding for R&D facilities encompasses construction or improvements made on public and private facilities that house R&D services, including property, buildings and “fixed capital equipment.” Major capital equipment for R&D comprises the acquiring, designing, and producing of movable instruments, and includes programs dedicated to acquiring or designing these instruments.

For the USDA, NIH and NIST, funding for R&D facilities construction is allotted to government-funded or Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) facilities, while NSF investments go toward construction initiatives implemented by the extramural research community. The DOE’s funding for R&D facilities construction is mostly for FFRDC facilities, with some funding administered by the extramural research community.

The Major Research Instrumentation program (MRI) within the NSF is dedicated to accelerating scientific innovation by investing in cutting edge research equipment at academic institutions, nonprofits and research museums. According to the NSF, the MRI program is made up of two tracks—one for instrument acquisition and one for instrument development. Instrument acquisition proposals involve the purchase of instruments and laboratory equipment that can outfit a research facility with little to no modification needed. Instrument development proposals involve illustrating the need for a new or upgraded instrument that has attributes such as enhanced transformative power, accuracy, reliability, throughput and/or interfaces. For fiscal 2016, the MRI received its proposed $75 million budget.

Other federal programs for research instrumentation or R&D infrastructure funding include the NSF’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, which aims to advance research and education in the fields of science and engineering to promote competition, innovation and engagement in research, education and training; and the Office of the Director of the NIH’s Shared Instrumentation/High-End Instrumentation Grant program, which encourages NIH-related researchers to purchase or upgrade commercially available instruments priced from $600,000 to $2 million, including, but not limited to, instruments for NMR, sequencing, XRD and cell sorting applications.

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