washington

Christmas has come late for the National Science Foundation (NSF), for which the Clinton administration is proposing a budget increase of 10 per cent, to $3.8 billion, next year (see right) — more than any other major government science agency. A slightly lower percentage is allocated to the agency's education activities, so NSF's research directorates will receive, if the Congress implements the proposal, an unprecedented 12 per cent increase.

Neal Lane, director of NSF, says he is uncertain what led the administration finally to accept the case — long put by advocates of the agency — that its wide portfolio of science support deserves to benefit from the groundswell of public support for more biomedical research. “I don't think I could pick out what made the difference. But the strong and consistent support of Harold Varmus [director of NIH] has been very important.”

The agency plans to use the money to increase the size and duration of its grants, while holding the success rate of grant applications steady at the current rate of 33 per cent. “We've been trying to push in this direction for a long time,” says Lane. “But recently we'd lost a little ground.” The agency plans to increase the average annual value of a grant from $80,000 in 1997 to $90,000 in 1999, and to stretch its average duration from 2.3 to 2.7 years.

In keeping with the administration's commitment to research on faster Internet links, the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate fares best in the proposal, with an increase in funding of 16.5 per cent to $330 million. The other research directorates get about 11 per cent rises each, and the new Plant Genome Initiative is funded at this year's level of $40 million.