Budget Aids Research

President Clinton's proposed federal budget for fiscal 1995 will increase funding for science and technology research at universities, according to a report in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The 3.7 percent increase will especially benefit the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation.

The budget increases are targeted to political priorities of the Clinton administration, such as research on AIDS, breast cancer, and minority health. Environmental issues and the development of information technology are also given special attention.

Some critics of the budge charge that it places too much emphasis on political favorites at the expense of basic research funding.

David B. Moore, vice-president for governmental relations at the Association of American Medical Colleges, told The Chronicle he was disappointed with the emphasis on specific rather than general research needs.

"The overall research effort envisioned in this budget fails to address the full breadth and complexity of the nation's health needs, " Moore said.

Within the Energy Department, funding for "fundamental science research would decline by 13.6 percent..mainly as a result of last fall's termination of the Superconducting Supercollider," according to The Chronicle.

Most of the savings generated from the cancellation of the supercollider will go towards its dismantling and closure, said the article.

While many Harvard scientists were adversely affected by the elimination of the supercollider project, it is unclear whether the new budget will have a positive or negative effect on Harvard sciences and research.

Paul C. Martin '52, dean of the division ofapplied sciences, Andrew H. Knoll, chair of thedepartment of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology,and Don C. Wiley, chair of Biochemistry andMolecular Biology, were unavailable for commentyesterday

Paul C. Martin '52, dean of the division ofapplied sciences, Andrew H. Knoll, chair of thedepartment of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology,and Don C. Wiley, chair of Biochemistry andMolecular Biology, were unavailable for commentyesterday