President Barack Obama released his administration’s recommendations for the FY 2015 budget on March 4. The key federal agencies providing support for education research are the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the Education and Human Resources Directorate (EHR) at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Each would receive increases over FY 2014, if the administration’s requests were to prevail.

The IES budget would increase by $60.2 million, largely for the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems program, data collection for the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey, and for states to participate in the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Funding for research overall would increase only by a small amount.

The NSF budget also provides crucial support for education research. Historical figures and the proposed FY 2015 budget numbers are listed in the table below. The administration has proposed a $43.3 million increase over the 2014 appropriation for the EHR Directorate. The Social, Behavioral and Economics (SBE) Directorate would receive a $15.4 million increase over the estimates for FY 2014. Much of this increase is for the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), which would be allocated $11.5 million over FY 2014 figures. More details on proposed funding for NSF and specific programs in the EHR and SBE directorates are included in the following tables.

National Science Foundation: Appropriations History
and FY 2015 Request ($ millions)

National Science Foundation: Education and Human Resources Directorate
Appropriations History and FY 2015 Request ($ millions)

National Science Foundation: Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate Appropriations History and FY 2015 Request ($ millions)

One other agency of interest to education researchers is NICHD, for which the president has proposed a $2 million increase for FY 2015, according to the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services. NIH overall would see an increase of $211 million over FY 2014. The table below highlights historical budget figures and proposed funding for FY 2015.

National Institutes of Health
Appropriations History and FY 2015 Request ($ millions)