Provided below, is an update on the recent budget that Congress approved and President Trump signed on March 23, 2018, which provided $1.3 trillion in spending and substantially increased research and development (R&D) funding. The FY2018 R&D spending will reach $176.8 billion, which is an increase of 12.8% ($20.1 billion) over FY2017 R&D spending. This is the largest level of R&D spending increase in more than a decade. A summary of key agencies includes:

  • National Institutes of Health – received an additional $3 billion, 8.3% increase to $37 billion for all programs. Specific areas that of attention included Alzheimer’s disease research, clinical and translational science, opioids research within the institutes focusing on drug abuse (NIDA) and neurology (NINDS), the BRAIN Initiative, the Cancer Moonshot, and the Precision Medicine Initiative.
  • National Science Foundation – received an additional $295 million, a 3.9% increase to $7.8 billion in core research activities.
  • Department of Energy’s Office of Science – received a 15% increase of $868 million for a total of $6.26 billion. Particular boosts are included for advanced computing and fusion energy research and U.S. contributions to the international ITER fusion project.
  • NASA Science Programs – received a $457 million, 7.9% increase to $6.2 billion. NASA planetary science program would increase by 21%, or $382 million, to $2.2 billion and the earth science programs would remain flat.
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – received a $234 million increase to $5.9 billion overall, for all programs and climate research would remain flat.
  • U.S. Geological Survey – received a $63 million increase to $1.1 billion and preserves the agency’s eight climate science centers.
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture – received a $33 million increase to $1.2 billion.
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – remained flat at $8.1 billion.
  • National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and National Endowments for the Arts (NEA) – Both of these agencies will receive full funding at $152.8 million that represents a $3 million boost apiece from FY2017 budget.

 

Other summaries of the R&D budgets can be found at