NEW YORK, Feb. 5 -- The National Science Foundation is seeking a $5.48 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2004, an increase of $453 million or 8.5 percent over funds requested for FY '03.
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One of the largest items in NSF's '04 budget proposals is $303 million for research in high-end computation and large-scale networking. The NSF will also proposes to spend $200 million for the Math and Science Partnership program for the third step of a five-year program to link local schools with colleges and universities to support math and science education. NSF also proposes increasing the number of fellowships, and the annual stipends for graduate fellows to $30,000.
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The NSF is currently operating at FY 2002 levels, as authorized by Congress through continuing resolutions as a conference committee seeks to work out differences between House and Senate versions of the FY '03 budget that was to have started Oct. 1. The continuing resolution, a Congressional tool that allows money to be spent before a budget is approved, is set to expire on Feb. 7, after being reauthorized from its previous sunset date of Jan. 31.