S&T Priorities

The Office of Management and Budget recently issued a memo outlining "the administration's multi-agency science and technology priorities for formulating [fiscal year] 2016 Budget submissions."

Among those priorities are:

Advanced manufacturing and industries of the future. The Administration is committed to revitalizing America's manufacturing sector, which will require innovation in the products that are manufactured and the manufacturing systems themselves. Agencies should give priority to those programs that advance the state of the art in manufacturing, with particular emphasis on government-industry-university partnerships and enabling technologies for industries of the future (such as nanotechnology, robotics, materials development, and cyber-physical systems) that benefit multiple sectors, as described in the National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing. . . .

National and homeland security. National and Homeland Security and Intelligence mission agencies should invest in science and technology to meet the threats of the future and develop innovative new security capabilities. In order to provide cutting-edge capabilities to meet current and future mission requirements, national security agencies need to support a balanced portfolio of basic and applied research and advanced technology development. In particular, priority should be given to investments to develop capabilities in hypersonics, countering weapons of mass destruction, accelerated training techniques, and handling large data sets for national-security mission requirements.

OMB also encourages federal agencies "to identify and pursue clearly defined 'Grand Challenges' -- ambitious goals that require advances in science, technology and innovation to achieve -- and to support high-risk, high-return research."

In the past year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched a "Cyber Grand Challenge" program to explore how to significantly improve defenses in cyberspace through automation, InsideDefense.com reported in January. Additionally:

Through one agency program, DARPA officials are examining ways to prevent people from being the weak link in the security chain. Eliminating the need to remember complex passwords, for example, might preclude users from scribbling them on notes vulnerable to prying eyes. The goal is to improve user authentication without further burdening users, and one solution could involve systems that can recognize typing patterns and use them to conduct continuous authentication once a person has accessed a system.