You might notice that the picture in the upper right-hand corner of this page isn’t the same one you’ve come to recognize over the past 12+ years in R&D Magazine. During the past two months there has been a change in staff at R&D. Tim Studt has moved over to head the editorial staff of our sister publication, Laboratory Equipment, and I have assumed the role of editor in chief here at R&D. I look forward to getting to know you and hearing from you each month, with comments on my editorial or suggestions of what you would like to see covered in future issues of the magazine.
Buzzwords and election years go together like apples and pie, and this year the most persistent term seems to be “change.” As 2008 has shown us, change is often a mix of good and bad. But despite the collapse of the mortgage market, the soaring demand for energy (and the costs that come with it), and the scandal over adjustable rate securities, it seems we recognize that R&D has intrinsic value to our overall prosperity.
The government has recognized this as well. Over the past two months, there have been many changes in federal funding for science. The first of which is the National Science Foundation (NSF) signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Dept. of Defense to support research grants pertaining to national security. Funding for these projects will be determined on a case-by-case basis by the NSF’s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate. This MOU will remain in effect for three years and could be extended.
Additionally, President Bush signed a supplemental war appropriations bill that included $400 million in additional 2008 federal funding for science. The NIH is set to receive $150 million, and NSF, NASA, and the Dept. of Energy’s Office of Science will each receive $62.5 million. The funding is intended to help avert layoffs at national laboratories whose budgets were slashed for 2008 and to boost research and teacher training programs that are critical to the U.S.’s competitiveness in science.
Although the emergency funding has averted some layoffs at Fermilab, which had its funding cut by $22 million from 2007 to 2008, it is not nearly enough to offset all of the losses that took place, such as those at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which cut 440 full-time employees in May due to its budget shortfall. This temporary measure is just a bandage on the bleeding that has occurred due to the stagnant federal budgets given to science over the past five years that are negatively impacting science today and causing many scientists to abandon research altogether.
These downward trends can only be reversed by increasing the federal budgets of the agencies that conduct science research. The fiscal year 2009 budgets are currently being negotiated, but they will likely not be approved until at least February 2009. By that time, a new President and Congress will be in place. Until then, Congress is expected to pass continuing resolutions that will maintain funding for science agencies at their current levels. It will be up to us to ensure that the officials we elect in November know the importance of science research in the U.S.
Big changes in national research trends have rippled through to R&D Magazine as well. In addition to the staffing changes, this is an exciting time for the magazine as we mark our 50th year with a raft of improvements. The response to the 2008 R&D 100 Awards has been bigger than ever, both from entrants and from the public. For the first time, our Innovator of the Year and long-running Scientist of the Year honors have been opened to the biggest field of R&D experts—our readers—for nomination and final ballot in September. (See www.rdmag.com/Nomination.aspx for details.) The winners will be announced, along with the year’s best innovations, at the 46th R&D 100 Awards Banquet on October 16 in Chicago, which promises to be more exciting than ever. And our R&D Daily e-newsletter has been a popular addition to the R&D fold, covering new research in the timely manner today’s world demands.
I hope you enjoy the changes we are making at R&D, and I look forward to your feedback.
