“The more we cut, the more the ideas that are being proposed to NSF in quantum, in AI will not be funded. And guess what; who’s funding them and the people? It is our competitor,” NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said, in reference to global competitors. 

“This is a national security issue,” he added, “and this is not something that we should take lightly at all. I’m extremely worried.”

Panchanathan’s comments came in response to a question from Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif, ranking member of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, who asked about the impact that further cuts might have on research priorities on top of the roughly 8% cut the science agency already took in 2024 appropriations.

In response to that same question, Dan Reed, chair emeritus of the National Science Board, called the cuts “devastating.” 

“We’re leaving the future on the table,” Reed said. “And I would add that those cuts potentially are convolved with inflation and so the real spending cuts are actually much larger.”

The hearing before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Research and Technology comes after NSF and other science agencies experienced cuts in the fiscal year 2024 appropriations passed by Congress. 

Notably, those funding levels fell short of what lawmakers previously authorized to carry out the work of the CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law in 2022 to boost U.S. production of semiconductors and to support scientific research and development in emerging technology areas.

President Joe Biden’s proposed budget seeks an increase for NSF, bringing its funding from $9.06 billion in the fiscal year 2024 appropriations to $10.18 billion. But even that would still put NSF’s funding below CHIPS Act targets. 

In response to a question from Rep. Scott Franklin, R-Fla., about the research NSF is able to fund, Panchanathan said the agency generally gets more than 40,000 proposals each year and is able to fund a quarter of those on average, but roughly 30-35% of proposals it receives have achieved NSF’s “gold standard” of merit review and could be funded.

Panchanathan said he’s worried about researchers being rejected for insufficient funds when their proposals were ranked high and not continuing to try. “The lost opportunity is not even part of this. If we factor that in, it’s even more than what we’re talking about,” he said.

Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., the chairman of the subcommittee, acknowledged the agency’s funding levels in opening remarks, noting that “the NSF’s budgetary constraints, coupled with evolving geopolitical dynamics and shifting research priorities, underscore the importance of our discussion today.”

Similarly, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., the subcommittee’s ranking member, pointed to the panel’s work on the science portion of the CHIPS and Science Act, which authorized the NSF’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships and called for a doubling of NSF’s budget by 2027. 

“We can’t just say that we’re competing against China. We must put our money where our mouth is,” Stevens said.

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During a Wednesday event on U.S. investment in R&D, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, National Science Foundation and National Science Board discussed findings in The State of U.S. Science and Engineering 2024 report, including the fact that the U.S. spent $806 billion, or 3.5% of its gross domestic product, on R&D in 2021.  

While officials were eager to share R&D successes from the federal government, they also looked to the report to shed light on workforce development needs for STEM-related fields, as well as the need to enhance educational opportunities for domestic students. 

“R&D is how we open the doors so that the future can be better than the past; it’s how we overcome the limitations of today and step into a better tomorrow,” OSTP Director Arati Prabhakar said during the event. “This report and the president’s budget both remind us of the tremendous strengths that we have here in America with our R&D capabilities, and they also start us on this important path to the work ahead.”

President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget leans into innovation through R&D efforts: A fact sheet OSTP shared with FedScoop highlights a request for a 36% funding increase (to a reported $900 million) for NSF’s Directorate for Technology Innovation and Partnerships, along with $606 million for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science to “integrate supercomputing, AI and quantum-based technology for developing the next-generation high-performance computing systems.”

“Most of these innovation-intensive industries, of course, grew out of prior federal R&D investments,” Prabhakar said. “If you think about that, that is true in fields that are diverse as artificial intelligence and new medicines and clean energy, so I think it’s a very consistent theme.”

Additionally, OSTP shared in the release that artificial intelligence R&D funds will be spread across federal agencies to further the development of responsible AI, citing a budget request of $729 million for NSF, a 10% increase, including $30 million for a second year of the National AI Research Resource pilot. 

An OSTP spokesperson shared in an email that the FY 2025 budget also includes a reported $32 million request to support the AI talent surge, and pointed to upcoming Office of Management and Budget issuance of AI guidelines for government to both address risks and encourage innovation. 

OMB “will soon issue the first governmentwide policy to mitigate the risks and harness the benefits in the federal government’s own use of AI,” the spokesperson said. “To fully deliver on this mission, we need the right people. President Biden launched an AI talent surge to bring more AI professionals into the Federal government to help us achieve our ambitious AI agenda. … We’re very excited about the talent we’ve brought on to date, and the talent we will bring on to work on high-priority AI projects.”

The spokesperson noted the Presidential Innovation Fellows, the U.S. Digital Corps and the U.S. Digital Service as some of the tech talent programs that have been advancing the goals of the administration where the AI talent search is concerned. 

Still, the country can’t rely solely on those programs, given the fact that occupations requiring STEM knowledge account for 24% of the U.S. workforce, and 19% of all STEM workers were born abroad, per the report. NSB Chair Dan Reed said the flow of domestic talent into the STEM workforce has to increase. The total STEM workforce is around 37 million individuals, a mix of those with at least a bachelor’s and those with technical skills who do not have at least an undergraduate degree. 

Reed acknowledged the value of attracting foreign workers, calling the country “a global magnet for talent. That’s been one of our superpowers, that the best and the brightest on the planet want to study and work here. We have to preserve that, but it’s not a given. They come because they see opportunities; we have to continue to create those opportunities.”

For the domestic workforce, Reed said there is cause for concern, and it starts with education.

The NSB chair referenced the report’s findings of a “sharp decline” in elementary and secondary education mathematics performance, and the fact that women and minorities are underrepresented when it comes to bachelor’s and graduate degrees in science and engineering.

“We have to improve access to higher education as students are to pursue advanced STEM degrees,” Reed said. At the same time, the country “must continue to welcome international students from around the globe and to implement policies that entice [and] enable them to stay and work here after they receive their degrees.”

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The National Science Board is responsible for establishing a strategic framework for the work of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and approving its budget submission. Members of the board also serve as an independent body of advisors to the president and Congress on science-and-technology policy matters.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory materials scientist Merlin Theodore is set to join the NSB, along with Ohio State University professor and satellite expert Dorota A. Grejner-Brzezinska.

Other appointments to the board include University of Michigan education professor Deborah Loewenberg Ball and geneticist Vicki Chandler.

The Biden administration said also that it will name Boeing Company Director of Engineering Marvi Ann Matos Rodriguez and astronomer Keivan Stassun to the advisory body.

Executive Associate Chancellor Wanda Elaine Ward of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Bevlee Watford, professor of engineering education at Virginia Tech, will also join the panel.

The NSB is made up of 25 members, which are appointed by the president, and each member serves a six-year term on the board.

Last year, the Biden administration named two scientists to the NSB, Victor McCrary Jr. and Julia Philips. McCrary is the vice president for research and graduate programs at the University of the District of Columbia, and Phillips is a materials physicist and was previously vice president and chief technology officer at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.

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McCrary is the vice president for research and graduate programs at the University of the District of Columbia, where his team leads the growth and oversight of the university’s research enterprise. He returns to the board after serving on it during the Obama administration and has held several other research leadership positions including at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Morgan State University and the University of Tennessee.

Phillips is a materials physicist and was previously vice president and chief technology officer at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. She retired in 2015 but remains an executive emeritus at the laboratories, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

The National Science Board establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation and serves as an adviser to Congress and the president. 

The board also approves major NSF awards, provides congressional testimony and issues statements relevant to the nation’s science and engineering enterprise. The president is able to appoint up to 24 members to the board, each for a term of six years. 

The appointments come as the White House earlier today signed a national security memorandum that is intended to confront risks associated with future quantum technologies with help from federal agencies, academia and the private sector.

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Skilled technical workers use science, engineering or even coding to do their jobs but without a bachelor’s degree.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine estimate there will be 3.4 million unfilled skilled technical jobs nationwide by 2022 — many of them in government.

NSB, which establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation, recommends additional funding and personnel be allocated to gather education and skills data on tech workers in areas ranging from information technology and cybersecurity to energy and health care.

“We need to take a look at this and see what is driving the demand,” Vic McCrary, chair of NSF’s Task Force on the Skilled Technical Workforce, told FedScoop. “Why is there a perception the pipeline is not as robust as should be?”

Federal statistical agencies must do a better job of coordinating to address data gaps, with NSF’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics at the helm, also coordinating input from states, industry and academia, according to NSB.

Such data will help design policies, skill development programs and workforce planning tools for public use.

“In government, there’s a real need around cybersecurity. You don’t necessarily need a bachelor’s degree in computer science,” McCrary said. “What we want is to get some of those white hat hackers working with our intelligence agencies and securing data.”

But that requires changing government’s message about the path to a successful career in skilled technical work that combats negative perceptions concerning holding a certification versus a four-year college degree, he added.

As new research in artificial intelligence and advanced materials defense becomes commercializable, more workers are needed to supply the resulting products and services.

Meeting that employee demand is critical to U.S. economic competitiveness, national security and the functioning of government facilities, McCrary said.

“We can not find enough of these workers,” he said.

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