The President’s Budget Request (PBR) included a 6.8%increase in the overall budget of the Department of Energy for FY2011, for a total budget of $28.4 billion. Both President Obama in his recent State of the Union address and Secretary of Energy Chu at the budget briefing emphasized the necessity of funding research to fulfill our future energy needs.

Overall, the Office of Science, the area that does the majority of basic research and computing research, would receive a 4% increase over FY10, bringing the research budget to $5.12 billion. The Advanced Scientific Computing Research program does very well in the request with an increase of 8.1% for a total of $426 million. Basic energy sciences would get a 12% increase, a total of $1.835 billion.

Another large request this year in the Office of Science is for Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists. That request is for a 72% increase to $35.6 million. This would include $16 million for additional Early Career Research Program awards and $10 million for additional graduate fellowships.

The FY11 budget request for ARPA-E is $300 million, which is the starting budget since the FY2010 budget did not include funding for ARPA-E, though it did have funding from the ARRA.

The presentations and detailed budget information for the Department is available online.