Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, my name is Dr. Chuck Staben and I am the Associate Vice President for Research and Acting Head of the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Kentucky. I am testifying on behalf of the Coalition of EPSCoR States, which is a non-profit organization that promotes the importance of a strong science and technology research infrastructure, and works to improve the research competitiveness of states that have historically received the least amount of federal research funding.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding the Department of Defense science and engineering basic research program budget, and more specifically a critical component of that budget, the Defense Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR). I would like to sincerely thank the members of this Subcommittee for your past support of the DEPSCoR program, and secondly to express the support of the Coalition for returning funding for this very successful research program to the $20 million plus levels of several years ago. On behalf of our 21 states and 2 territories, I would ask the Members of this Subcommittee to reject the Administration’s proposed plan to terminate the DEPSCoR research program and transfer funds to education activities.
The Defense EPSCoR program was initially established in P.L. 103-337 with two important policy objectives. First, DEPSCoR ensures a national research and engineering infrastructure by enhancing the capabilities of institutions of higher education in DEPSCoR states. Secondly, DEPSCoR develops, plans and executes competitive, peer-reviewed research and engineering work that supports the needs of the Department of Defense. Our battlefields, our intelligence gathering and analysis capacity, our procurements and maintenance activities are increasingly driven by and dependent upon advances in research and technology development.
As the members of this Subcommittee know, EPSCoR states have a vast reservoir of talent and capacity. They represent 20 percent of the U.S. population, 25 percent of the research and doctoral universities, and 18 percent of the nation’s scientists and engineers. The EPSCoR program is critical to ensuring that we maintain a national infrastructure of research and engineering by providing much needed funding to these leading universities and scientists.
Perhaps most importantly, DEPSCoR represents federal research money well spent. With the support of this Subcommittee, DEPSCoR has provided critical research dollars competitively to institutions which satisfy peer-review requirements in proposals that address priorities identified by the Department of Defense, through Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) for this program.
In Kentucky, DEPSCoR has funded 15 research projects since 1993. In a recent project, researchers worked closely with the Navy on aluminum alloys and fabrication techniques critical to shipbuilding. We fully anticipate this research and testing methods will be used by the Navy in its ship programs. Additionally, we have also participated in non-DEPSCoR funding, so we have expertise. DoD funded research developed an anti-sniper device now in the prototype stage under consideration by the Marine Corps. Research in Kentucky can lead directly to deployed improvements. However, without DEPSCoR, we cannot make the advances we want to make or contribute as fully as we are capable.
I would now like to highlight a few DEPSCoR-funded success stories of research projects in other states that have, and are presently contributing to our National defense interests.
Alaska:
Sea-Ice Upper Ocean Interactions: Observations and Modeling. The University of Alaska, Fairbanks researchers are investigating the spin-up and spin- down of the upper ocean in response to storms. The observational system will measure surface-to-bottom and density structure, offering a unique opportunity to expand our understanding of how the ocean couples surface mesoscale variability and wave excitation to the underlying ocean on the intermediate depth continental shelves. This study, for the Navy, will improve real-time prediction systems for ship navigation and submarine surfacing in seasonally ice-covered regions, such as the Artic and the Sea of Okhotsk in the Western Pacific and the Labrador Sea/Gulf of St. Lawrence in the northwestern Atlantic.
West Virginia:
Intelligent Agents for Reliable Operation of Electric Warship Power Systems. The objective of this Navy research is to design distributed intelligent control agents for reliable operation of integrated electronic power systems of modern electric warships. In the event of scheduled load changes or unforeseen disturbances, the power system is expected to operate at a minimum level of performance in areas that could be mission critical and thus result in saving lives. This system will consist of at least three layers: (i) an electrical network, (ii) a computer, control, and communication network, and (iii) a human operator. To make this critical infrastructure operational and efficient, one will have to develop tools and methodologies that combine information technology, control and communication and power systems engineering. Thus, an interdisciplinary team of investigators, with expertise in power, control, computer science, and mathematics will work together on these methodologies. The success of this research will have an impact on reliable operation of electric power systems of an electric warship, as well as on the education of the next generation of power system engineers.
Fieldable Rapid Bioagent Detection: Advanced Resonant Optical Waveguide and Biolayer Structures for Integrated Biosensing. This research for the Navy will direct detection strategies suitable for handheld unit implementation and applicable to a broad spectrum of agents are central to effective protection and response scenarios for a range of threats from sophisticated biowarfare agents to simple biocontamination of potable and domestic water supplies. Integrated optical techniques based on evanescent wave interaction have received considerable attention and study as a means to effectively interrogate biolayer surface target binding in direct detection devices. This proposal defines a balanced, tightly coupled interdisciplinary research program for modeling, analysis, and synthesis efforts to establish an analytical and experimental understanding of the interdependence of bio-layer and coupled resonant optical waveguide design necessary to quantify intrinsic limits of detection, optimize realizable extrinsic performance, and extend the versatility of this important new class of devices
Vermont:
Heterogeneous Catalysis of Chemical Warfare Agent Simulants Using Porous Inorganic Supports. DEPSCoR-funded work in Vermont involves the development of catalysts that can decompose chemical warfare agents to non-toxic compounds. The University of Vermont has explored methods by which contaminated equipment could be treated in a non-destructive way so that the equipment could be returned to the battle area, which would minimize the downtime experienced due to a chemical attack. In particular, there are currently very few techniques available to treat the types of sensitive equipment (electronics, objects with complex geometries such as keyboards, etc.) on which the modern “warfighter” has come to rely, and the university is specifically studying materials and methods for this application. Finally, protection (prior to an attack) and decontamination (after an attack) are often based on related technologies, and the university is also exploring the development of materials that could be incorporated into fabrics and polymers to be used for troop protection. The university has established several connections with industrial partners to discuss commercial development of our materials.
Dispersed Microslug Formation for Discrete Satellite Microthruster Propellant Delivery. DEPSCoR is funding the development of a miniaturized propulsion system which will be integrated into next-generation small satellites currently being developed by the Air Force and NASA. These satellites will have masses of under 20 kg and will operate in cluster formations (aka, “formation flying”) and be capable of executing mission requirements not easily performed by a single satellite.
The value of nanosats to the Department of Defense is derived from it ability to provide enhanced satellite capabilities for supporting ground-based troops, aircraft and naval vessels. This support will come primarily in the form of enhanced space-based reconnaissance and communications. Nanosats in particular offer the ability to quickly deploy large numbers of autonomous and effectively “disposable” satellites into space at low cost. Reconnaissance nanosats may be deployed to provide detailed coverage of a particular combat theater for short periods of time (6-12 months).
In addition to these projects, DEPSCoR research in other states has included:
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, the Administration’s budget proposes terminating the DEPSCoR program over the next three years and moving funds into education programs. The critical research conducted in DEPSCoR states, mentioned above, demonstrates why the Administration’s proposal must be reconsidered by this Subcommittee.
Last year, the Administration’s FY2007 budget proposal showed an out-year funding level for DEPSCoR in FY2008 of $9.839 million, thus reflecting the Administration’s commitment to continuing the DEPSCoR program. This year, the Administration instead proposes to begin a three year sunset of the program by reducing DEPSCoR funding from $9.478 million enacted in FY 2007 to $5.878 million in FY 2008, far less than the $9.8 million contemplated for FY2008 in last year’s budget submission.
This decrease in funding is due to the Administration proposing to move funding from the DEPSCoR program to the National Defense Education Programs (NDEP). The budget justification for NDEP reflects this new money and in fact reflects significant out-year growth in the NDEP program. Thus, no spending reduction or cost-saving is captured under the Administration’s planned DEPSCoR sunset. And more importantly, the plan simply moves money that was originally destined for critically underfunded states to a national program, thus abandoning one of the central policy objectives of DEPSCoR, which is to maintain a national research infrastructure.
The Administration stresses the need for research to support the “warfighter” and challenges DEPSCoR’s contribution to this effort. As noted in the research programs I listed earlier, DEPSCoR research clearly supports the warfighter and our national security needs by addressing weapon system improvement, chemical and biological agent detection, high-speed data and communication transmission, and physical condition studies critical to deployed military personnel. Furthermore, DEPSCoR grants necessarily support the warfighter because they are competitively chosen to reflect the Defense Department’s announced needs and priorities. DEPSCoR supports specific research needs identified by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Army Research Office (ARO) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR).
Mr. Chairman, every state has important contributions to make to the nation’s competitiveness and every state has scientists and engineers that can contribute significantly to supporting the research needs of the Department of Defense. DEPSCoR ensures that every state does just that.
Mr. Chairman and Members of this Subcommittee, on behalf of my colleagues in the coalition of EPSCoR states, I respectfully ask that you fund DEPSCoR in FY 2008 at the $20 million level that sustained the program before the funding reductions of recent years. Prior to the decrease in funding, DEPSCoR was funded at a $20+ million level and produced many more research awards benefiting DoD priorities than it is able to support today, including many of the examples cited above. Between FY 1998 and FY 2001, 283 projects in 20 states were funded, 81 in FY 2000 alone. However, since the program reductions, only 97 projects have been funded in the past four years. This past year, DoD awarded $7 million to 13 academic institutions in nine states to perform research in science and engineering, under the FY 2007 DEPSCoR program. The constrained funding is severely limiting the ability of the EPSCoR states to contribute vital research that supports our national defense needs, and we have heard that DoD may start to restrict the number of proposals from each state for lack of funding.
Funding reductions have impacted Department of Defense research, in my home state of Kentucky. In the last four years only three research awards have been funded (zero in the last two years) compared to sixteen awards between FY 1998-FY 2001.
Mr. Chairman, these cutbacks have created a critical research shortfall. Now more than ever we must invest in research programs that will support our national security and will improve our readiness and defense capabilities in the future. Funding DEPSCoR in FY2008 at $20 million will return the program to the level necessary to achieve the objectives envisioned by the original authorizing legislation - to build and sustain a national research and engineering infrastructure and to support critical Department of Defense priorities. Furthermore, the matching requirements actually bring more funds to bear from the states to these national programs than does regular funding.
We are making significant research contributions but the budget cuts are wrecking the program.
Thank you for your time and for the opportunity to testify before the Subcommittee.