President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2012 budget submitted to Congress for the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) proposes a funding level of $1.001 billion, an 8.9% increase over the President’s 2011 budget request and a 16.9 % increase above NIST’s 2010 appropriations. The NIST budget doubles funding for NIST laboratories, one of several strategies for maintaining U.S. technological leadership laid out in the president’s plan for science and innovation and reaffirmed in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010.Among the initiative funding requests is $84.6 million for Construction of Research Facilities, which contains funding for the agency’s regular maintenance and repair budget as well as $25.4 million for renovation to the Boulder Laboratories Building 1. The 60-year-old building houses the majority of research and measurement laboratories on the NIST-Boulder campus. The successful improvement of the NIST-Boulder facilities supports scientific discovery and technical development of transformational technology in electromagnetic interference testing, homeland security, telecommunications, nanotechnology, precision timing, hydrogen energy sources, precision electrical standards, biotechnology, applications of lasers, quantum computing and quantum communications, and other national needs.Read more about the funding from NIST.
Federal Budget Request for NIST Includes $25.4M Lab Renovation
