[1st-mile-nm] Obama's Science and Innovation Plans

[Richard Lowenberg]

>From this week's State Science and Technology Institute newsletter:
http://www.ssti.org

Federal TBED Funding and Programs Could Expand under Obama Administration
After two years of campaigning, President-elect Barack Obama has begun shaping
the agenda for his coming administration. Though nothing is certain at this
point, throughout his campaign, President-elect Obama reiterated his support
for TBED-related initiatives and plans to increase funding for research and
innovation. His Plan for Science and Innovation, released in September, makes a
wide range of TBED commitments, touching on clean energy investment, STEM
education, entrepreneurship and basic research.

Last month the New York Times, with research from the Information Technology and
Innovation Foundation (ITIF), estimated the annual cost of Obama's innovation
plan at $85.6 billion. The president-elect pledged during the campaign to
double the current level of funding for basic research over the next ten years
at federal science agencies and to fully fund the America Competes Act, signed
by President George Bush, at $5.9 billion annually.

In order to foster private sector innovation, the Obama plan would make the
research and development tax credit permanent, double funding for the
Manufacturing Extension Partnership, create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to
increase collaboration between university researchers and industry and invest
in a nationwide network of public-private incubators. The plan would also
increase research spending on defense and homeland security, including DARPA
and Homeland Security ARPA.

The plan also called for: restoring the role of White House science advisor to a
senior-level position, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology
would report directly to the President and would serve as Director of the Office
of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP); and, strengthening the role of the
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which would
offer private sector and academic insight into federal innovation policy.

Also included in the plan was a new $500 million Technology Investment Fund that
would build on existing federal education technology programs by offering
matching grants to ensure that technology is integrated in public schools. The
funds would be used to introduce new high-tech learning tools, build a new
technology-based curriculum and help connect teachers through social networks
to increase collaboration. In order to improve the quality and number of
science and technology educators, the plan called for 40,000 Teaching Service
scholarships of up to $25,000 each to increase the number of teachers in
high-need subjects and underserved regions. Federal science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM) education policy would be coordinated by a
new STEM Education Committee in OSTP. This committee would also be charged with
devising a new method of tracking student achievement in STEM subjects.

At the university-level, the plan calls for tripling the number of National
Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships from 1,000 to 3,000 and
creating a new Opportunity Tax Credit for college students. A Community College
Partnership Program would help enhance STEM education at two-year schools to
encourage community college students to transition into STEM programs at
four-year universities.

Clean energy and green-collar jobs programs took center stage in Obama's plan to
strengthen the U.S. economy. His New Energy for America plan called for
investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to
help commercialize clean energy advancements and to build the infrastructure
for new fuel and electricity technology. An additional $50 billion over the
next five years would capitalize a federal Clean Technologies Deployment
Venture Capital Fund to invest in promising energy technology projects. A new
$1 billion program would allocate funds to states to help convert manufacturing
centers into producers of clean energy technology. The plan also supported job
training programs for military veterans and disadvantaged youth to get the
skills needed to find work in the green economy.

Find out more about President-elect Obama's Plan for Science and Innovation at:
http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/FactSheetScience.pdf

ITIF has published a breakdown of the costs of Obama's innovation plan at:
http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=176

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To stay posted on the Presidential transition, log on to the President-Elect
transition web site: www.change.gov


---------------------------------
Richard Lowenberg
1st-Mile Institute
P.O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110;   505-603-5200 cell
rl at 1st-mile.com  www.1st-mile.com


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