White House Outlines R&D Budget Priorities for FY 2023

The White House has published a memorandum on Research & Development Priorities for the fiscal year (FY) 2023 Budget, a document that lays out the Administration’s priorities for federal research agencies to consider when drafting their budget requests. This memo, which is traditionally released annually by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), is the first such memo released by the Biden Administration. It outlines five cross-cutting themes for agencies to consider for their budgets:

• pandemic readiness and prevention;
• tackling climate change;
• research and innovation in emerging technologies;
• innovation in equity; and
• national security and economic resilience.

In addition to these cross-cutting themes, the memo touches on a few other issues related to R&D and STEM education. Notably, the memo states the Biden Administration’s intent to prioritize federally funded R&D and make it open and accessible to the public while focusing on both domestic R&D and manufacturing as much as possible. The memo also highlights the role of STEM education in supporting the R&D enterprise, and that the Biden Administration would prioritize equity and infrastructure development in budget releases. More information is available in the memo.