Now that US President Barack Obama has won a second term, some are wondering how that second term may affect science budgets.
"Having an Obama administration versus a Romney administration may lead to some differences, but for the most part, I think things haven't changed much from where they were a week ago," says Matt Hourihan, the R&D budget and policy program director at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to LiveScience.
Obama has said that his 2013 budget proposal will include a 5 percent increase for science spending, The Guardian's Occam's Corner blog says, but it adds that "what is all too easy to forget, especially from afar, is that the president does not pass the US budget. It is not Obama's budget. The budget belongs to Congress."
And while Democrats have retained the presidency and a slight lead in the Senate, Republicans held onto their control of the House of Representatives.
However, scientific research, barring a few areas, LiveScience adds, enjoys bipartisan support. "The difference now, at least in the current makeup, is the House has been much more interested in cutting discretionary budgets," Hourihan says.