ACADEMIC RESEARCH LABS: NSF completes refurbishing plan

Abstract

Sometime next week, Congress will receive a major report on what the National Science Foundation thinks ought to be done about repairing and rebuilding the deteriorating research labs of the country's universities. Because Congress probably won't provide any money for facilities for at least another year, NSF's Blueprint for the Future is essentially a make-believe document coming from a make-believe NSF unit. Still, it's important, and money is certain to come. Although never really a big public issue, the facilities problem has incited hot academic and political passions for over a decade. On Capitol Hill, people are going bananas over it, according to one staffer involved in the appropriations process. Frustrated institutions have taken to lobbying in recent years and have caused the current epidemic in Congress of pork-barrel funding of laboratories tagged onto appropriations bills without any review by scientists for their merit. So last year, Congress' authorization committees instructed NSF t...