President Proposes Shrinking DOE Science Budget by 16 Percent

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) would receive $31.7 billion in FY 2020, $3.8 billion below FY 2019 enacted appropriation. Within this, $5.5 billion (-16 percent) would be directed toward the Office of Science. The request allocates 40 percent of Office of Science’s FY 2020 budget to research. Approximately 22,000 researchers are supported by grants from the Office of Science. Funding for Biological and Environmental Research (BER) would be slashed by nearly 30 percent from the FY 2019 level to $494 million, with funds directed to research in foundational genomic sciences. The proposed level of funding for BER would be the lowest the program has received since FY 2007. The FY 2020 request for Biological Systems Science prioritizes core research areas of genomic sciences, including new efforts in secure biosystems design, particularly genome-scale engineering tools, ongoing activities in systems biology and environmental genomics, and the four Bioenergy Research Centers. Overall, Biological Systems Science would receive $327 million, a decrease of 11 percent. The budget for foundational genomics research would increase by 11 percent to $100 million, which includes $20 million (+$16 million) for biosecurity research, an Administration priority for FY 2020. Support would decrease for environmental genomics (-48 percent) and computational biosciences (-50 percent), and the Bioenergy Research Centers would receive a flat budget of $100 million, resulting in an overa...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news