ACS Joins ESC in Letter to Office of Management and Budget on FY25

November 7, 2023

Dear Secretary Granholm, Director Young, and Director Prabhakar,

As you prepare the fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget request to Congress, the Energy Sciences Coalition (ESC) urges you to request no less than $9.5 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. This level of funding is consistent with the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act which authorized research and infrastructure activities at the DOE Office of Science. We recognize the constrained budget environment, but now is the time to double down on fundamental research programs and build world-leading research facilities to maintain U.S. competitiveness, drive economic growth, and build the next-generation workforce.

There is universal agreement that the United States must maintain its leadership in science, technology and innovation, and the DOE Office of Science plays a pivotal and leading role in addressing this country’s energy, national security, and environmental challenges. The DOE Office of Science is also uniquely positioned to advance all seven of the Biden Administration’s FY 2025 research and development priorities outlined in the August 17 memo to federal agencies, especially advancing trustworthy artificial intelligence technologies, maintaining global security and stability by developing critical emerging technologies, tackling climate change through clean energy technology innovation to meet net zero greenhouse gas emission goals by 2050, driving regional development and job creation, and reducing barriers to STEM education and for emerging research institutions.

As the nation’s primary sponsor of physical sciences research, the DOE Office of Science plays a vital role in the American scientific ecosystem – a proven model for success in discovery and innovation. The Office of Science sponsors research programs vital to American prosperity and security at research universities and national laboratories and helps maintain the U.S. pipeline of science and engineering talent. The Office of Science is also unique among federal science agencies, supporting the network of 17 DOE national laboratories—a competitive advantage for the nation's research and innovation ecosystem— and directly stewarding ten of them. The Office of Science also builds and operates the most sophisticated, world-class scientific user facilities used by universities, industry and other federal agencies.

Congress, with the Administration’s strong support, has recognized that bold new investments are needed to stay ahead of international competition. Despite the bold vision in the CHIPS and Science Act, the FY 2024 budget request fell short of the funding guidance for the DOE Office of Science. The FY 2024 authorized funding level for the DOE Office of Science is $9.5 billion compared to the FY 2024 budget request of $8.8 billion. The FY 2025 authorized funding level is $10.07 billion. However, recognizing that the CHIPS and Science Act was passed after the FY 2024 budget request process was well underway and funding caps are now in place under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, ESC recommends no less than $9.5 billion in FY 2025, consistent with the FY 2024 authorized funding level, to meet the intent of the legislation while addressing the critical and growing mission needs of the DOE Office of Science.

At least $9.5 billion authorized for the DOE Office of Science in the CHIPS and Science Act is needed to:

• grow core research at national laboratories and research universities in the physical sciences, biological sciences, advanced materials, geosciences, computing and engineering to help develop future energy technologies and climate solutions as well as support general discovery science that serves as the seed corn of future ideas, technologies, and job creation.
• advance new, strategic investments in emerging technologies, such as quantum science and technology; artificial intelligence and scientific machine learning; microelectronics; fusion energy; advanced computing; genomics, biotechnology, and other convergence science; next-generation communications; accelerator and laser systems; and optical detectors. Additional funding is needed for the DOE Office of Science to fully realize the potential and deliver on the ambitious goals in federal strategies such as the Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy, Harnessing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Research and Development to Further Societal Goals, the National Strategy on Microelectronics Research, the National Quantum Initiative, and the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan. The DOE Office of Science plays a prominent role in all of these efforts.
• accelerate the construction and upgrades of world-class scientific user facilities and maximize operations to support the more than 36,000 researchers from academia, industry and federal agencies who rely on these facilities for their science and engineering pursuits. The DOE Office of Science already maintains and operates 28 world-leading facilities.
• Fully fund the operations and maintenance of new and updated world-class facilities and cutting-edge instrumentation. All DOE Office of Science facilities are significantly oversubscribed, meaning many missed opportunities each year to advance high-impact and highly-rated research from national labs, academia, industry and start up companies, and other federal agencies.
• implement the 18 new research initiatives authorized in the CHIPS and Science Act to address energy and environmental challenges, stay at the forefront of science and technology, and deploy state-of-the-art instrumentation.
• prepare the next generation of American scientific and engineering talent through competitively awarded grants and significantly expand existing workforce and education programs, such as the DOE Office of Science Graduate Fellowship and Computational Sciences Graduate Fellowship, and new programs to address the nation’s growing workforce needs in STEM and energy industries and meaningfully tackling issues of broadening participation and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• maintain and grow multi-disciplinary centers focused on addressing scientific grand challenges, such as Energy Frontier Research Centers, Energy Earthshot Research Centers, Bioenergy Research Centers, Energy Innovation Hubs, national quantum information science research centers, microelectronics science research centers, and AI co-design centers.
• modernize national laboratory infrastructure, such as utilities, roads, and general purpose lab space, to attract and retain the best scientific and engineering talent from around the world.

New investments in fundamental research are needed to stay ahead of international competition, maintain U.S. competitiveness, and create American jobs of the future in key energy sectors as well as new technology areas. In particular, scientific breakthroughs and energy technology innovation are still necessary to decarbonize the U.S. economy and mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Office of Science-supported fundamental research forms the foundation for future energy technologies. The current imperative—energy systems that meet our energy security, economic, and environmental challenges—requires increasing investments in all areas of fundamental research to advance all energy systems, including energy storage, negative emission technologies, advanced nuclear, hydrogen, fusion, renewables such as wind and solar, carbon capture, storage and utilization, and next-generation fuels. The Office of Science helps lead scientific breakthroughs for the eight Energy Earthshots and is a key participant in energy technology working groups focused on cross-cutting energy challenges.

Groundbreaking research requires complementary investments in research infrastructure. The Office of Science is conducting international benchmarking studies and have generally found that the “era of unquestioned American scientific dominance is drawing to a close” and “there is world-wide competition for access to the latest, most powerful facilities.” However, it is not too late for the U.S. to reclaim leadership. Accelerating construction of state-of-the-art facilities would help maintain and attract the best scientific talent and drive future discoveries and technological innovation. Further, more general DOE national lab infrastructure, such as office space and critical utilities, is the backbone of the DOE enterprise, but is aging and needs to be modernized. Modern, reliable infrastructure at the national labs is critical to support world class science facilities, attract top talent, and address science and technology challenges of the future.

As you know, the DOE Office of Science enjoys bipartisan and bicameral support in Congress. It is imperative that the Administration honor this bipartisan support, as well as the vision laid out in the CHIPS and Science Act, by requesting at least $9.5 billion for the DOE Office of Science in FY 2025.

We look forward to working with you in advancing the critical missions of this invaluable agency.

Sincerely,

ESC Membership