Bill would boost science funding

Abstract

The US Congress has passed an innovation bill that would allow major increases in science funding for agencies. President Joe Biden plans to sign the bill on Aug. 9. A relatively rare reset of basic science funding and policy, the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act is a combination of legislation that Congress and the science community have worked on for several years. It is aimed at improving US research competitiveness, primarily to keep up with China, which has vastly expanded its science and technology funding in recent years. The bill, also called CHIPS+, would authorize major funding increases for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, as well as for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. But authorizing funding increases is not the same as actually providing the money—Congress