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Last week, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
wrote Smithsonian secretary Lawrence Small that it intended to take
$35 million away from his agency's 2003 budget request and give it
to NSF. The proposal, still under wraps by the Bush Administration,
surprised Smithsonian officials wrestling with their own
controversial plan to restructure science at the institution's 16
museums, National Zoo, and half-dozen research centers. Scientists
at the affected institutes--the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC),
and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute--would be free to
compete for funding under NSF's regular programs.
NSF director Rita Colwell declined to comment on the proposed
transfer, and an OMB official said the agency doesn't comment on
ongoing budget negotiations. But an administration official noted
that the transfer is consistent with a management initiative that
favors peer review and "market-based" competition to ensure the
best science. Last week OMB director Mitch Daniels foreshadowed the
move during a Washington, D.C., speech in which he singled out NSF
for praise and warned other agencies to shape up or suffer the
consequences. "Programs [like NSF's] that perform well, that are
accountable to you as taxpayers for reaching real results and
measuring and attaining those results, deserve to be singled out,
fortified, and strengthened," Daniels said. "Conversely, programs
that make no such attempt or fail to deliver really need to be
scrutinized, and the money we are now investing in them redeployed
to higher purposes."
Research at the Smithsonian has been squeezed for the past 20
years as the institution has struggled with ever-expanding needs
for renovations and new construction. The situation came to a head
last spring when Small proposed closing two research centers and
rearranging scientific research throughout the institution
(ScienceNOW, 10
April). Although Congress stepped in to protect those research
centers, the Smithsonian has appointed a commission to review its
science agenda. "It would be very unfortunate if [the proposed
transfer] came to be," says Jeremy Sabloff, director of the
University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
and chair of the commission.
The Smithsonian has asked OMB to reconsider its proposal in the
next round of budget negotiations. Meanwhile, OMB has requested
that Smithsonian and NSF leaders map out a plan by mid-January to
implement these changes.
With reporting by Jeffrey Mervis.
Related sites
The National Science
Foundation
The Smithsonian Institution
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