The NSF budget

In its annual budget request, the National Science Foundation has asked for $530 million for the fiscal year 1966 (which ends June 30, 1966). The proposed budget, which is summarized in Table 1, calls for an increase of almost $110 million over fiscal 1965. The Foundation is one of six agencies which together provide nearly all the federal money spent on basic research and it is the only one whose basic function is the support of science. The other five support research which they consider related to their primary administrative functions, but in the past year or two their expenditures for basic research have been stabilized or even reduced. NSF has stepped in to support some of the research previously sponsored by one or another of these agencies, an example being the grants provided by the Foundation for the construction and maintenance of several major accelerators. Such support used to be the exclusive province of the Atomic Energy Commission.