“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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The Responsible Design, Development and Deployment of Technologies, or ReDDDot, initiative aims to “help create technologies that promote the public’s wellbeing and mitigate potential harm,” according to a press release. ReDDDot invites multisector and multidisciplinary team proposals that demonstrate principles, methodologies and impact aligned with the project’s objective of responsible design and deployment.

“As discoveries and innovations are translated to practice, it is essential that we engage and enable diverse communities to participate in this work,” NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said in the release. “NSF and its philanthropic partners share a strong commitment to creating a comprehensive approach for co-design through soliciting community input, incorporating community values and engaging a broad array of academic and professional voices across the lifecycle of technology creation and use.”

ReDDDoT aims to educate and train the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce on responsible creation and implementation of tech, empower all communities —including those that are “economically disadvantaged and marginalized populations” —to participate in tech development, fill gaps in research and innovation in responsible design for tech, and more. 

One of the key goals of the program is to support and strengthen multidisciplinary collaborations and cross-sector collaborations. It focuses primarily on three technology areas outlined in the CHIPS and Science Act: artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and natural and anthropogenic disaster prevention or mitigation. 

NSF has enlisted the help of the Ford Foundation, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Pivotal Ventures, the Siegel Family Endowment and the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation for funding and support. 

The first phase invites proposals for workshops, planning grants or the creation of Translation Research Coordination Networks, and has a deadline of April 8. The second phase, which invites full project proposals, has a deadline of April 22.

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