Boost for NSF funding

The Scientist reports: Boost for NSF Funding.

The US Senate and House of Representatives have approved a 14 percent funding increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF) for 2009. A Senate appropriations subcommittee approved the measure yesterday (Jun 18), and a House subcommittee passed the bill last week.

The bill will now move to the Senate floor for a vote, which has not yet been scheduled.

The spending bill would net NSF, which is the second largest federal funder of academic research after the National Institutes of Health (NIH), $6.9 billion for FY 2009. More than 80 percent, or $5.6 billion, of this total budget would go towards research grants.

Good news for cancer research and indeed all healthcare, and indeed all science!