Insufficient NSF funding could doom the Chips and Science Act

In July, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act to stem the loss of U.S. leadership in the semiconductor industry and its ripple effects on manufacturing, supply chains, and national security. Yet, even as the U.S. seeks to regain the ground we ceded globally on semiconductors, we continue to lose our competitive edge in other areas of science and technology. 

To address this economic and national security risk, Congress must follow through on CHIPS and Science by funding the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other science agencies in the fiscal year 2023 at the level that the act authorizes.  

U.S. leadership is slipping in critical fields like 5G, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and biotechnology. This is no surprise. For nearly two decades, the National Science Board’s biennial “Science and Engineering Indicators” has charted the rise of China’s science and technology sector by examining the dimensions that define science and technology leadership — research and development investment, research papers, and workforce development as measured in science and technology graduates. On some of these measures, China has already overtaken the U.S. 

To retake our lead — or even just stay competitive — the U.S. must redouble its investment in talent, ideas and translation.  

Fortunately, the CHIPS and Science Act gives us the path to do this by authorizing new programs to build the larger and more inclusive science and technology workforce we so desperately need, investing in basic and use-inspired research in critical technology fields and bringing ideas and talent together to accelerate the translation of research into products and goods here in the United States. Significantly, it also includes programs to fuel innovation across the entire country, not only in a few geographic areas. It lays the foundation to spur innovation hubs in every region of the country to address national needs, from societal challenges to critical technologies. 

None of this will be possible unless Congress meets the urgency of this moment by prioritizing NSF and other agencies the CHIPS and Science Act calls on to deliver for the nation. This is truly a “Sputnik moment,” when our collective action (or inaction) will determine the future. 

NSF, the non-classified complement to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the keystone of federal R&D, is at the core of these authorized investments. 

NSF is America’s STEM talent agency; it is poised to develop the STEM workforce at all educational levels to help meet expected shortfalls in talent, including 600,000 cybersecurity jobs and 1.1 million jobs in the bioeconomy. 

NSF is America’s ideas agency; it fuels the basic science and engineering research that is the knowledge base of our economic and national security. 

NSF is America’s impact agency; through its new Technology, Innovations, and Partnerships (TIP) directorate, NSF is ready to bring talent and ideas together to accelerate turning American discoveries into STEM-based industries nationwide. 

An underfunded NSF holds the nation back. When the U.S. underinvests in discoveries, talent, and translation, we erode America’s ability to invent the future and risk both our economic competitiveness and national security. 

With an additional $600 million, for example, NSF could expand our domestic STEM talent base — including in critical technology areas — by tripling the number of graduate students it supports through its Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Last year NSF could not fund 50 highly rated National AI Research Institutes ($1 billion worth) because it did not have the funding. This summer, over 500 organizations from every U.S. state and territory sent NSF ideas for its new Regional Innovation Engines program; to fund a quarter of them would require $400 million in the fiscal year 2023, or twice what is proposed for the program in the president’s fiscal year 2023 request.  

Congress has done the hard work passing the CHIPS and Science Act, charting a visionary path for the NSF and U.S. science and engineering. Now it needs to turn the act’s authorization levels into appropriations by setting the 302b allocations for the commerce, justice, and science committees higher and by funding NSF at $11.89 billion in the fiscal year 2023. 

As our global competition keeps moving, we stand still at our peril. We don’t have a moment to lose. 

Dan Reed is chair of the National Science Board and a University of Utah professor of Computational Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering. As former Microsoft corporate vice president, Reed helped shape Microsoft’s vision for technology innovations in cloud computing. Darío Gil is a member of the National Science Board and senior vice president and Director of IBM Research. He leads innovation efforts at IBM, directing research strategies in areas including AI, hybrid cloud, semiconductors, quantum computing, and exploratory science. 

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Oct. 13 to correct a budget allocation and a figure related to job shortages.