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CRA Bulletin
June 3, 2004
- NSF Funding Outlook Grim But Cyberinfrastructure is a Priority
- Highlights from the House Science Committee HPC Hearing
- President Awards CRA-W for Mentoring Efforts
- Industrial R&D Expenditures Declined in 2002
- Academic R&D Grows in 2002
- Academies' Presidents Comment on U.S. Visa Policies
- CREU Program Accepting Applications
- Fulbright Scholar Awards 2004-05
<< Back to CRA Bulletin home page
<< Previous Bulletin (April 27, 2004)
NSF Funding Outlook Grim But Cyberinfrastructure is a Priority, says NSF Director
National Science Foundation Director Arden Bement met recently with the Coalition for National Science Funding (of which CRA is a member) and warned the science community CNSF represents to lower expectations of increased funding for the agency in the near-term, saying the expectation of budget-doubling, as authorized by Congress and the President in 2002, "isn't reasonable."
For more information: http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives/000084.html.
Highlights from the House Science Committee HPC Hearing
In what could fairly be described as a "love in," the recent House Science Committee hearing on HR 4218, the High Performance Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 (HPCRA), featured witnesses from the Administration, industry, university and federal labs all singing the praises of the committee's bill to amend the 1991 High Performance Computing and Communications Act. The Committee's bill attempts to address concerns within the computing community about interagency coordination in the government-wide Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program generally, and specifically within the high-performance computing community. See http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives/000080.html.
President Awards CRA-W for Mentoring Efforts
President George W. Bush recently awarded the Computing Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) the 2003 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) for "significant achievements in mentoring women across educational levels."
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John H. Marburger, III, presented CRA-W representative Dr. Jan Cuny and CRA-W Co-Chair Dr. Mary Jean Harrold with the citation at a noon ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. CRA-W was one of just eight institutional winners of the annual award, given to those organizations identified as "exemplars" and leaders in the national effort to more fully develop the Nation's human resources in science, mathematics and engineering.
To read the full press release, go to: http://www.cra.org/Activities/craw/news/May04.php.
Industrial R&D Expenditures Declined in 2002
Estimates produced by the NSF show a significant decline between 2001 and 2002 in the amount that companies spent on R&D. From the report:
- Companies spent $190.8 billion on R&D they performed in the United States during 2002, compared with $198.5 billion spent in 2001...In inflation-adjusted dollars, the decline was $8.9 billion, the largest single-year reduction since the survey began and the second largest percentage reduction (4.9 percent).
- Both federally-funded and company-funded R&D fell in 2002. Since 1953, current-dollar company-funded R&D has declined only once (in 2001), and constant-dollar estimates have declined only six times (in 1970, 1971, 1975, 1987, 1993, and 2001).
- Domestic employment by companies that performed R&D in the United States during 2002 was 15.4 million, compared with 16.7 million for 2001. The number of people who were employed by R&D-performing manufacturing companies was 9.1 million in 2002, and R&D-performing companies in nonmanufacturing industries reported employment of 6.3 million. Of those, the number of full-time equivalent scientists and engineers who performed industrial R&D in manufacturing industries was about 0.6 million and in nonmanufacturing industries was about 0.5 million.
The NSF InfoBrief is available online at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/infbrief/nsf04320/start.htm.
Academic R&D Grows in 2002
According to the NSF, universities experienced broad-based growth in R&D funding and performance between FY2001 and 2002. A greater number of institutions also experienced growth in R&D expenditures than has been common in recent years.
- More universities and colleges reported increased R&D expenditures in FY 2002 than in any of the prior six years.
- Federal funding, which supported 60 percent of the R&D expenditures reported by universities and colleges, fueled the growth of total academic R&D in FY 2002. In that year, federally financed academic R&D grew at its fastest rate since 1979—increasing 13.6 percent over FY 2001. In contrast, R&D expenditures funded by non-Federal sources increased by 7.0 percent (or slightly less than $1 billion) over FY 2001.
- R&D funded by industry sources, at $2.2 billion, declined by 1.2 percent from the FY 2001 figure. This reported decline in industry funding of academic R&D is the first since 1964.
- Of the 625 institutions surveyed, the top 100 in terms of federally financed R&D expenditures accounted for 82 percent of federally financed R&D spending and the top 100 in terms of total R&D expenditures accounted for 80 percent of all R&D dollars in FY 2002. The 20 research performers with the highest federally financed R&D expenditures represented 35 percent of federally sponsored expenditures.
The NSF InfoBrief is available online at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/infbrief/nsf04319/start.htm.
Academies' Presidents Comment on U.S. Visa Policies
The National Academies have joined more than 20 other education, science and engineering groups in supporting changes to U.S. visa policy. "Our visa processing system not only must provide genuine security against those who might do us harm, but also keep our borders open to the stream of scientific and technical talent that fuels our progress," the presidents of the academies said in a statement on May 13th.
To read more: http://www.nationalacademies.org/topnews/#tn0513b.
CREU Program Accepting Applications
The Computing Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women in
Computing Research (CRA-W), in conjunction
with the Coalition to Diversify Computing
(CDC), is pleased to
announce a program geared to increase the number of women and minorities who go
on to CS&E graduate programs.
CREU (formerly known as CREW) provides Collaborative Research Experiences for
Undergraduates working during the academic year. Students work in teams of 2-3
with a sponsoring faculty member. Deadline for applications is July 1, 2004.
Application information is available at
http://www.cra.org/Activities/craw/creu/index.php.
Fulbright Scholar Awards 2004-05
The Fulbright Scholar Program is pleased to announce the following awards in Computer Science and related fields that are available in countries in Southeastern Europe and the Caucuses.
- Armenia Award #5170
- Bulgaria Award #5235
- Greece Award #5288
- Moldova Award #5187
- Romania Award #5366
- Turkey Award #5392
The deadline for submission of applications is August 1, 2004.
For additional information about the awards and the application process, please
consult the Fulbright Program web site at
www.cies.org or contact Cynthia Crow, Program Officer, Europe/Eurasia at
ccrow@cies.iie.org.
All Computer Science awards are at: http://www.cies.org/award_book/award2005/discipline/COMP16.htm.