On August 17, 2017, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) jointly issued a memorandum outlining the Trump Administration’s research and development (R&D) “priorities” for fiscal year (FY) 2019. The memorandum is intended to “highlight[] the Administration’s R&D priority areas for formulating FY 2019 Budget submissions” and indicates that “[t]hese priorities should receive special focus in agency budget requests.”
The memorandum identifies five “R&D Priority Areas” as follows:
- American military superiority;
- American security;
- American prosperity;
- American energy dominance; and
- American health.
Notably absent from the memorandum is any discussion of climate change. This is a marked departure from previous versions, issued during the Obama Administration, which identified “global climate change” as a key R&D priority.