If President Obama has his way, R&D funding is in line for a boost next year. The president’s proposed 2016 budget calls for a 6% increase in R&D funding to $146 billion, according to an article in Chemistry World. Some $67 billion of this would go toward basic and applied research.
The National Science Foundation would receive $7.7 billion and its chemistry division would see its funding grow by 3% to more than $251 million under the president’s plan. The aspirational budget also addresses chemical safety in the form of increased monies for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board. Increased funding is also indicated for the National Institutes of Health for biomedical research, the U.S. Department of Agriculture for competitive grants, the Environmental Protection Agency for improving security and safety at the nation’s chemical sites and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, a major chemistry and materials science funder.
