NSF budget request up 16 percent from 2008

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama's fiscal 2010 budget request presented Thursday to Congress included $7 billion for the National Science Foundation.

Up 16 percent from the NSF's 2008 budget, the plan includes additional support for graduate research fellowships, early career researchers and for the education of technicians in high-technology fields.

It also encourages more novel high-risk, high-reward research proposals, such as critical research priorities in global climate change.

The administration said its National Science Foundation budget plan would invest in science and technology to foster economic growth, create millions of high-tech, high-wage jobs and strengthen national security.

The proposal is part of a plan to double funding for basic research during a 10-year period, beginning with $3 billion for the NSF in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the 2010 budget that increases NSF funding by $950 million from 2008.