White House ties research to results

Preparing for the fiscal 2005 budget, the White House is stressing that agencies must tie research and development to their missions, according to a June 5 guidance signed by White House science adviser John Marburger and Mitchell Daniels, then director of the Office of Management and Budget.

According to the guidance, the White House wants to require that agencies receiving R&D funds use OMB's Program Assessment Rating Tool to evaluate each program's relevance to specific presidential priorities and to citizens.

"New programs must be justified with rigorous analysis demonstrating importance, consistency with national priorities and likelihood of success," the memo advised. "Existing programs also need to be re-evaluated, modified, redirected or terminated in keeping with national needs and priorities."

The administration has six R&D priorities for fiscal 2005: technologies to combat terrorism; nanoscale materials; networking and information technologies; biotech; global climate observation and predictive systems; and hydrogen fuel cells.