A Strategic Vision for Department of Energy Environmental Quality Research and Development (2001) / Chapter Skim
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5. The Level of Investment in Department of Energy Environmental Quality Research and Development
5. The Level of Investment in Department of Energy Environmental Quality Research and Development
Pages 93-107
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From page 93... ...
. The smaller R&D investment in the EQ business line relative to that in the Energy Resources and National Nuclear Security business lines suggests that decision makers in DOE and Congress do not view EQ R&D as a high priority.
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From page 94... ...
These data are an indication that decision makers in DOE, the Office of Management and Budget, and Congress may not fully understand the magnitude and duration of many of the challenges faced by the EQ business line and the potential value of long-term R&D to address such challenges. The small amount of EQ R&D investment also is consistent with a business line that is required to meet many important short-term milestones, including regulatory requirements and the goals of DOE's accelerated clean-up plan (DOE, 1998~.
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From page 95... ...
The similar and o u, o ._ Q t,, ~~ 2 ~ = ._ O ~ 1 od O IN 4 3 [I _ EQ Science National Nuclear Security Business Line IIII1 FY 99 ·FYOO _~1 1 ~FY01 Energy Resources FIGURE 5.1. DOE Business Line R&D Spending by Year (in billions of dollars)
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From page 96... ...
In EM, often reinforcing or driving these needs are milestones associated with existing compliance agreements between DOE and state environmental regulatory authorities, and concomitant expectations of the affected communities and their representatives. Congressionally mandated milestones are major drivers of much of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management's (RW's)
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From page 97... ...
In addition, the funding levels of some EQ R&D programs have been TABLE 5.2 Environmental Management Science Program Funding History (Fiscal Year 1996 to 2000) FY 1996 FY 1997 FY 1998 FY 1999 FY 2000 Total Budget 50.0 48.0 48.0 47.0 32.0 (in $ millions)
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From page 98... ...
DETERMINING AN APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF R&D INVESTMENT The committee was asked to provide guidance on how to determine the level of future investments in EQ R&D. It has not been possible to identify an analytic or quantitative approach to establish an appropriate level of R&D funding for the EQ business line, because funding levels are in the end a policy decision that involves multiple tradeoffs.
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From page 99... ...
There is a large volume of information describing and analyzing R&D funding in the federal government and in the private sector. Although there are marked and understandable differences between DOE's EQ programs and other government and industry R&D programs, benchmarking could provide one meaningful measure for discerning a range of reasonable R&D investment levels for the EQ business line.
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From page 100... ...
Benchmarking of recent EQ R&D funding trends against funding trends for DOE's other R&D portfolios also is informative because it can help distinguish trends that are DOE-wide from those that are unique to the EQ R&D portfolio. Figure 5.1 shows that EQ R&D funding has declined significantly at the same time that R&D funding for DOE's other business lines has increased.
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From page 101... ...
in comparison with DOE as a whole, and for DOE's four programmatic R&D business lines. Again, the percentage of the DOE EQ budget spent on R&D is significantly lower than that for other U.S.
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From page 102... ...
The National Science Board's report, Science and Engineering Indicators 2000, summarizes fiscal year 2000 funding levels for basic research and applied R&D for different types of federal R&D (see Table 5.5~. For natural resources and environment, for example, approximately 9 percent of R&D funding supported basic research.
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From page 103... ...
The Industrial Research Institute tracks similar data for industry, and its data show that in 2000, approximately 7 percent of industrial R&D funding supported basic research. Data on the distribution of EQ R&D funding for EM in fiscal year 2000 by focus area, including EMSP funding directed at each focus area (the only significant part of the EQ R&D portfolio with funding data broken down by stage of R&D)
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From page 104... ...
104 A Strategic Vision for DOE Environmental Quality R&D 69 ._ .
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From page 105... ...
, coupled with recent congressional pressures to fund basic research within the EMSP program. It should be noted that these data are based on how OST program managers chose to categorize their R&D funding into the 7 stages of R&D tracked by OST, and that this categorization was done relatively quickly at the request of this committee.
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From page 106... ...
existing techniques are expensive, inefficient, or pose high risks to health or the environment; or (2) techniques under development have high technical risk; · produce results that could transform the understanding, need, and ability to address currently intractable problems and lead to breakthrough technologies; · leverage R&D conducted by other DOE business lines, the private sector, state and federal agencies, and other nations to address EQ goals and objectives; .
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From page 107... ...
An EQ R&D portfolio that is well conceived, effectively managed, adequately and consistently funded, and championed by DOE leadership is essential to success in achieving the DOE EQ mission.
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