DARPA Archives - GovAffairs

Computing Research Policy Blog

The Computing Research Association (or CRA) has been involved in shaping public policy of relevance to computing research for more than two decades. More recently the CRA Government Affairs program has enhanced its efforts to help the members of the computing research community contribute to the public debate knowledgeably and effectively.

Tag Archive: DARPA

Department of Defense FY 2021 Request: With Few Exceptions, this is a Very Bad Budget

February 25, 2020/In: Defense R&D Highlights, FY21 Appropriations, Security /by Brian Mosley

In our continuing series following the Trump Administration’s Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) budget request, we now turn to the Department of Defense (DOD). The DOD’s Science and Technology (DOD S&T) program is made up of three accounts: 6.1 (basic research), 6.2 (applied research), and 6.3 (advanced technology development). These accounts are themselves made up of individual accounts for each of the three services (Army, Navy, and Air Force), as well as a Defense Wide account. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a section under the Defense Wide account. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, most of these accounts are cut under the Trump Administration’s plans for FY21.

Final FY20 Appropriations: Mostly Increases for Research but There is Some Bad News

December 18, 2019/In: Funding, FY20 Appropriations, Research /by Brian Mosley

Just in time for the calendar year 2020, and almost three months after the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) began, Congress is finally finishing up its work on the Federal budget with two Minibuses of all the appropriations legislation. For the research community, it’s mostly good news but there are a few clouds in the sky: the National Science Foundation will see very modest increases under the bill, and the defense research accounts are essentially flat-funded.

Appropriations Update: House Defense FY20 R&D Numbers are Better than the Administration’s, but are not Great

July 22, 2019/In: FY20 Appropriations /by Brian Mosley

In our continuing series looking at the House of Representative’s actions on Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20), we turn to the House Defense Appropriations bill, which was passed in June. The Department of Defense’s Science and Technology (DOD S&T) program is made up of three accounts: 6.1 (basic research), 6.2 (applied research), and 6.3 (advanced technology development). These accounts are themselves made up of individual accounts for each of the three services (Army, Navy, and Air Force), as well as a Defense Wide account. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a section under the Defense Wide account. Unfortunately, the numbers that the House settled on for these accounts are not good, but they are better than what the Administration requested.

Fiscal Year 2019 Update: Most of the Budget is Done…Except for what’s Most Important for Researchers

September 19, 2018/In: Funding, FY19 Appropriations, General /by Brian Mosley

It’s been a busy September from a Congressional appropriations perspective. As of this writing, nine of the twelve appropriations bills have passed, including the Defense, Energy and Water, and Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS) bills – a productive pace not seen from Congress in many years. While it’s good these were passed into law, and they do cover some important research agencies, left unfinished is one key bill of concern to the computing research community — the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) appropriations bill, which includes funding for NSF, NIST, NOAA and NASA; more on that in a moment. Until then, here are the details of the pieces of legislative that have passed.

Appropriations Update: FY 18 House and Senate Numbers for Defense Research

November 28, 2017/In: FY18 Appropriations, General /by Brian Mosley

In our continuing series looking at the House and Senate appropriations moves for Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018), we turn to the Defense Appropriations bills. Just before the Thanksgiving break, the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee released their version of the bill; the House had passed their version back at the end of June.

Coalition for National Security Research Releases Statement on Senate Defense Appropriations Bill

July 6, 2015/In: FY16 Appropriations, Policy, Research /by Brian Mosley

The Coalition for National Security Research (CNSR), a broad-based coalition of 74 members (of which CRA is a member) including industry, research universities and institutes, and scientific and professional associations committed to a strong Defense Science and Technology (S&T) Program, released a statement commending the Senate Appropriations Committee for their work on S. 1558, the […]

Prabhakar Named New DARPA Director

July 10, 2012/In: People /by Peter Harsha

It appears that Arati Prabhakar has been named the new DARPA Director, taking over for Regina Dugan who left the agency to work with Google. From the memo to DARPA staff: Dr. Prabhakar has spent her career advancing technology in support of both national security and the private sector, from early research and development through […]

Federal R&D Investments Up Overall in President’s FY13 Budget Request

February 13, 2012/In: Funding, FY13 Appropriations /by Peter Harsha

The President’s budget request for FY 2013 is out and the White House has prepared a handy summary of the R&D portions. Some highlights: The National Science Foundation would increase 4.8 percent compared to FY 12, to $7.4 billion in FY13. (Research accounts up 3.9 percent) The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program […]

Computing Research in the FY11 Budget Request

May 5, 2010/In: Funding, FY11 Appropriations, Policy /by Peter Harsha

[Each year, AAAS asks CRA to prepare a chapter on IT research funding in the federal budget request for their Research and Development FY 20XX report, and so we plow through the various agency budget documents and the White House releases and come up with 2000 words or so that attempt to sum up the […]

The Change at DARPA

March 29, 2010/In: People, Policy, Research, Security /by Peter Harsha

Since about 2001, the computing community – through CRA and others, and with lots of mention on this blog – has aired concerns about policy changes at the Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA), the Defense Department’s leading-edge research arm and arguably one of the two most important agencies in the history of computer science. […]