President Biden’s 2024 Budget: Science and Technology Highlights

MetroLab Network Staff

Panel led by Arati Prabhakar,, Director of OSTP, discussing President Biden’s FY 2024 science, tech and innovation budget requests. Image by: Kate Burns

Yesterday, the White House Office for Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) held an event to highlight the science, technology and innovation investments of President Joe Biden’s 2024 fiscal budget.

MetroLab attended the event featuring agency leaders including Arati Prabhakar, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Science Advisor to the President, and Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director of the National Science Foundation. A panel featuring these agencies, along with ARPA-H and NIST highlighted some key takeaways:

1. Dr. Panchanathan highlighted two programs, the Regional Innovation Engine program and the Accelerating Research Translation (ART) program. When describing ART, the Director stated “[this effort asks and supports] how do we equip our institutions to have research at speed and scale.”
2. When asked what success looks like for the Regional Innovation Engine program, Dr. Panchanathan looked to “co-creation.” This program seeks to energize innovation in new places by investing in a region’s ecosystem. Success isn’t just one university working alone, it’s bringing many key stakeholders together to co-create solutions.
3. Dr. Locascio from NIST looks forward to deploying programs supported by the CHIPS Act, as they are excited to develop tools and techniques for communities to use (the cyber security framework 2.0 for example), and focusing on supply chain issues.

We want to highlight that the President’s budget also provides $19M to the newly established ARPA-I, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Infrastructure agency. More information as described by USDOT:

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Infrastructure (ARPA-I) (new) — A new agency modeled after the Department of Defense’s DARPA and the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E focused on leveraging science and technology to address efficiency, safety, and climate goals for our nation’s transportation infrastructure. ARPA-I will support advanced research and deployment, innovative partnerships, and technology transfer activities across sectors.

Source here — this fact sheet also includes information on USDOT innovation and research programs supported by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Additional details on President Biden’s FY 2024 Budget on R&D efforts:

Total investments include “$209.7 billions for Federal R&D, a $8.9 billion increase over the 2023 enacted level, including approximately $18 billion for R&D in key agencies in the CHIPS Act (the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Department of Commerce’s National Institute Standards and Technology). This Federal investment addresses societal needs in areas in which the private sector does not have sufficient economic incentive to make the required investments, particularly in the basic and applied research that has been a hallmark of the American innovation enterprise. The 2024 Budget provides $101.2 billions for basic and applied research, an increase of $3.5 billion above the 2023 enacted level.”

• $2.5 billion, an increase of $1 billion over the 2023 enacted level, for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to drive biomedical and health breakthroughs;
• $650 Million for the Advanced Research projects Agency-Energy;
• $1.2 billion for NSF Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships; and
• $50 million in discretionary funding for the Regional Technology and Innovation Hub at the Department of Commerce and $300 million for NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines programs.

Federal R&D Priorities:

• Cutting the death rate of cancer by half
• Preparing for and preventing pandemics
• Tackling Climate Change
• Advancing national security and technological competitiveness
• Innovation for Equity
• Cultivating STEM Education, engagement and workforce ecosystems

For more information on this event and President Biden’s proposed budget:

• Please find OSTP Director Prabhakar’s remarks as prepared here: LINK.
• Please find a recording of the full event here: LINK.
• Please find the R&D chapter of the FY24 budget here: LINK.
• Please find a fact sheet summarizing the R&D investments in the FY24 budget here: LINK.