Federal research and development (R&D) funding has increased since 2012—most recently because of COVID-19 stimulus funding. Five agencies obligated the majority of federal R&D funding with the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Health and Human Services (HHS) accounting for nearly 80 percent in fiscal year 2021 (see figure). HHS has mainly funded research, while DOD mainly funds development. However, HHS has become a major funder of development in recent years because of COVID-19 stimulus funding. HHS averaged less than 1 percent in development funding through fiscal year 2019 but reported 37 percent of its R&D obligations were for development in fiscal year 2021. Of the estimated $179.5 billion in federal R&D obligations in fiscal year 2021, about two-thirds went to organizations outside the federal government. In fiscal year 2021, industry, universities, and colleges received the majority of these external R&D obligations—almost $90 billion.
Federal Research and Development Obligations, Fiscal Year 2021
Note: FY 2021 data are estimates provided by federal agencies to the National Science Foundation.
Federal funding also includes four multi-agency initiatives in areas identified as having long-term national importance, such as quantum information science and nanotechnology. These initiatives coordinate activities in areas that are too broad or complex to be addressed by one agency alone. For example, more than 60 agencies participate in an initiative on network and information technology, which includes investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Not all participating agencies contribute funding to such initiatives. Funding for these initiatives increased over the previous decade, and accounted for roughly $14 billion in fiscal year 2020, just under 9 percent of the total federal R&D budget.
Why GAO Did This Study
Scientific and technological innovation are critical to long-term U.S. economic competitiveness, prosperity, and national security. The U.S. has long been a global leader in advancing the frontiers of science and technology. Increased competition from other countries has led some experts to express concern that the U.S. may be losing its competitive edge in certain technologies. Agencies are investing in various R&D initiatives, including those that are of strategic national importance, such as network and information technology, nanotechnology, quantum information science, and global environmental changes.
This report describes (1) trends in federal R&D funding over the last 10 years and (2) the funding and organization for selected multi-agency R&D initiatives, among other objectives.
To address these objectives, GAO analyzed data published by the National Science Foundation on annual R&D expenditures and examined Office of Management and Budget (OMB) data. GAO also reviewed agency documentation and collected written responses to structured questions on federal R&D from the Chief Financial Officer or budget office from the five agencies that fund most R&D.
In addition, GAO interviewed officials from OMB and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, including the Directors of the National Coordination Offices for selected multi-agency R&D initiatives, which are coordinated under the auspices of the National Science and Technology Council.
For more information, contact Candice N. Wright at (202) 512-6888 or wrightc@gao.gov.
On October 17, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission announced it is seeking public comments on whether it should propose updates to its Energy Labeling Rule to modernize and expand the rule’s coverage to reduce energy costs for consumers and require manufacturers to provide consumers with repair instructions. The notice announcing this initiative was published in the Federal Register on October 25.
At the request of several commenters, the commission has extended the public comment period until January 31, 2023. Information about how to submit comments can be found in the Federal Register notice.
The Commission vote approving the public comment period extension was 4-0.
“Consumers are increasingly conscious of how the products they buy affect the environment, and depend on marketers’ environmental claims to be truthful. We look forward to this review process, and will make any updates necessary to ensure the Green Guides provide current, accurate information about consumer perception of environmental benefit claims. This will both help marketers make truthful claims and consumers find the products they seek.”
Samuel Levine, Bureau of Consumer Protection Director
The Green Guides were first issued in 1992 and were revised in 1996, 1998, and 2012. They provide guidance on environmental marketing claims, including how consumers are likely to interpret particular claims and how marketers can substantiate these claims to avoid deceiving consumers.
The FTC is requesting general comments on the continuing need for the guides, their economic impact, their effect on the accuracy of various environmental claims, and their interaction with other environmental marketing regulations. The Commission also seeks information on consumer perception evidence of environmental claims, including those not in the guides currently.
Specific issues on which the FTC expects to get many public comments include:
Carbon Offsets and Climate Change: The current Guides provide guidance on carbon offset and renewable energy claims. The Commission invites comments on whether the revised Guides should provide additional information on related claims and issues.
The Term “Recyclable:” Among other things, the FTC seeks comments on whether it should change the current threshold that guides marketers on when they can make unqualified recyclable claims, as well as whether the Guides should address in more detail claims for products that are collected (picked up curbside) by recycling programs but not ultimately recycled.
The Term “Recycled Content:” Comments are requested on whether unqualified claims about recycled content – particularly claims related to “pre-consumer” and “post industrial” content – are widely understood by consumers, as well as whether alternative methods of substantiating recycled content claims may be appropriate; and
The Need for Additional Guidance: The Commission also seeks comment on the need for additional guidance regarding claims such as “compostable,” “degradable,” ozone-friendly,” “organic,” and “sustainable, as well as those regarding energy use and energy efficiency.
A list of recent cases brought relating to topics covered by the guides can be found on the FTC’s website.
The Commission vote approving the publication of a Federal Register notice announcing the opening of the public comment period was 4-0, with Chair Lina M. Khan issuing a separate statement. The notice will be published in the Register in mid-January 2023, after which the FTC will accept comments for 60 days. Information about how to submit comments can be found in the Federal Register notice.
Led by tech and retail giants, American companies are installing record-levels of solar to power their operations and now account for 14% of all installed solar capacity in the United States, according to the Solar Means Business 2022 report released recently by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
Firms providing green building technologies and services received record levels of venture capital investment in 2022, with investment reaching $2.2 billion so far this year.
That is according to a new report [The Future of Building in a Low Carbon World] from building venture capital firm A/O PropTech, which found that overall investment in green construction tech over the past five years reached $4.5 billion across more than 450 deals.
Venture capital raised by companies involved in green building design, building materials procurement and lower carbon construction methods has been steadily increasing over the five-year period, the research showed.
The concept has become a mainstream part of municipal waste planning, experts say, even as targets largely remain aspirational and some recent efforts have faced pandemic-related setbacks.
Experts point to community engagement, tie-ins with climate, resilience and justice goals, public-private partnerships, and infrastructure investments as catalysts to advancements.
The clothing company Reformation sells a lot of cashmere—as of now, 39 different styles of cashmere dresses, along with cashmere hats, scarves, skirts, sweatpants, sweatshirts, and more than a dozen variations of cashmere sweaters. While the material actually makes up only a tiny fraction of the company’s total fabric use, cashmere is responsible for nearly half of the brand’s carbon footprint. So Reformation has spent the last few years working to replace cashmere with a recycled version instead. This fall, it launched a collection with 90% recycled fiber, a step closer to its goal of eliminating new cashmere completely.
Decarbonizing the construction industry is currently a central research focus. Engineers and scientists have extensively explored innovative strategies to reduce carbon emissions and consequent climate change-inducing characteristics of materials and processes.
Tropical cyclones have been growing stronger worldwide over the past 30 years, and not just the big ones that you hear about. Our new research finds that weak tropical cyclones have gotten at least 15% more intense in ocean basins where they occur around the world.
That means storms that might have caused minimal damage a few decades ago are growing more dangerous as the planet warms.
Warmer oceans provide more energy for storms to intensify, and theory and climate models point to powerful storms growing stronger, but intensity isn’t easy to document. We found a way to measure intensity by using the ocean currents beneath the storms – with the help of thousands of floating beachball-sized labs called drifters that beam back measurements from around the world.
Why it’s been tough to measure intensity
Tropical cyclones are large storms with rotating winds and clouds that form over warm ocean water. They are known as tropical storms or hurricanes in the Atlantic and typhoons in the Northwest Pacific.
A tropical cyclone’s intensity is one of the most important factors for determining the damage the storm is likely to cause. However, it’s difficult to accurately estimate intensity from satellite observations alone.
Intensity is often based on maximum sustained surface wind speed at about 33 feet (10 meters) above the surface over a period of one, two or 10 minutes, depending on the meteorological agency doing the measuring. During a hurricane, that region of the storm is nearly impossible to reach.
For some storms, NOAA meteorologists will fly specialized aircraft into the cyclone and drop measuring devices to gather detailed intensity data as the devices fall. But there are many more storms that don’t get measured that way, particularly in more remote basins.
Over 1,100 drifters are currently operating around the world. The U.S. (blue dots) operates over 430 of them. France (orange) has about 200. Each typically lasts about a year. NOAA
Our study, published in the journal Nature in November 2022, describes a new method to infer tropical cyclone intensity from ocean currents, which are already being measured by an army of drifters.
How drifters work
A drifter is a floating ball with sensors and batteries inside and an attached “drogue” that looks like a windsock trailing under the water beneath it to help stabilize it. The drifter moves with the currents and regularly transmits data to a satellite, including water temperature and location. The location data can be used to measure the speed of currents.
Examples of NOAA’s drifters and the drogue that helps stabilize them. NOAA
Since NOAA launched its Global Drifter Program in 1979, more than 25,000 drifters have been deployed in global oceans. Those devices have provided about 36 million records over time. Of those records, more than 85,000 are associated with weak tropical cyclones – those that are tropical storms or Category 1 hurricanes or typhoons – and about 5,800 that are associated with stronger tropical cyclones.
That isn’t enough data to analyze strong cyclones globally, but we can find trends in the intensity of the weak tropical cyclones.
Here’s how: Winds transfer momentum into the surface ocean water through frictional force, driving water currents. The relationship between wind speed and ocean current, known as Ekman theory, provides a theoretical foundation for our method of deriving wind speeds from the drifter-measured ocean currents.
Explaining Vagn Walfrid Ekman’s theory of currents.
Our derived wind speeds are consistent with wind speeds directly measured by nearby buoy arrays, justifying the new method to estimate tropical cyclone intensity from drifter measurements.
Evidence beneath the storms
In analyzing those records, we found that the ocean currents induced by weak tropical cyclones became stronger globally during the 1991-2020 period. We calculated that the increase in ocean currents corresponds to a 15% to 21% increase in the intensity of weak tropical cyclones, and that intensification occurred in all ocean basins.
In the Northwest Pacific, an area including China, Korea and Japan, a relatively large amount of available drifter data also shows a consistent upward trend in the intensity of strong tropical cyclones.
We also found evidence of increasing intensity in the changes in water temperatures measured by satellites. When a tropical cyclone travels through the ocean, it draws energy from the warm surface water and churns the water layers below, leaving a footprint of colder water in its wake. Stronger tropical cyclones bring more cold water from the subsurface to the surface ocean, leading to a stronger cooling in the ocean surface.
It’s important to remember that even weak tropical cyclones can have devastating impacts. Tropical Storm Megi, called Agaton in the Philippines, triggered landslides and was blamed for 214 deaths in the Philippines in April 2022. Early estimates suggest Hurricane Nicole caused over $500 million in damage in Volusia County alone when it hit Florida as a Category 1 storm in November 2022.
The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season officially ended on Nov. 30 with 14 named storms and eight hurricanes. It isn’t clear how rising global temperatures will effect the number of tropical cyclones that form, but our findings suggest that coastal communities need to be better prepared for increased intensity in those that do form and a concurrent rise in sea level in the future.
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