Bush administration puts supercomputing in spotlight

The White House wants government research and development activities in the fiscal 2007 budget proposal to focus on homeland security, high-end computing, nanotechnology and cybersecurity, according to a memorandum by President Bush's top budget and science advisers.

Josh Bolten, director of the White House Office of Budget and Management, and John Marburger, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, sent the memo, which encourages department heads to engage in interagency R&D projects over single-agency initiatives when they formulate next year's budget proposals.

They said agencies may propose new R&D areas, but must identify "potential offsets" by eliminating or reducing funding for "less effective or lower priority programs," according to a July 8 memo obtained by National Journal's Technology Daily.

Kei Koizumi, director of R&D budget and policy programs for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said the memo contains one "surprise" -- the focus on high-end computing over R&D for network and IT programs. Koizumi said the shift reflects congressional and industry concerns that the United States could lose its competitive edge in the supercomputing area to other countries.

The directors wrote that investments in supercomputing and cyber infrastructure are higher priorities than network and information technology because of "their potential for broad impact." They said plans for high-end computing must relate to the 2004 federal plan on the issue and "aggressively" focus on supercomputing capability, capacity and accessibility issues.

"Advanced networking research (including test-beds) on hardware and software for secure, reliable, distributed computing environments and tools that provide the communication, analysis and sharing of very large amounts of information will accelerate discovery and enable new technological advances," they wrote.

On homeland security, the directors said "many challenges remain and much research and development is still required to further reduce vulnerabilities."

They said agencies should emphasize R&D efforts for quick and cost-effective decontamination devices following a biological, chemical and nuclear or radiological incident. They also would like to concentrate on technology that could predict the spread of infectious diseases; enhanced biometric systems; screening devices for cargo and travelers; and safety of the nation's food supply and the agriculture industry, among other topics.

The Bush administration also encouraged novel approaches to accelerating activities that incorporate nanotechnology and nanoscience with other sciences. Bolten and Marburger emphasized that a high priority should be given to the societal impacts, including human health and environmental issues, related to nanotechnology.

On physical science, the directors said a priority would be given to R&D projects that promise significant new technologies with broad societal impact, such as high-temperature superconductors and molecular electronics.

The directors also encouraged agencies to conduct R&D related to recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the president's hydrogen fuel initiative. They said significant progress on the president's Ocean Action Plan -- in reaction to the commission's report -- is expected over the next two years. On hydrogen fuel, the advisers said programs should focus on novel materials for fuel cells and hydrogen storage such as nanotechnology.