NIST Is Biggest Winner in Budget Proposals War

The US Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will receive a total of $857 million (€651.92 million) for the fiscal year 2013. This represents a 14 percent increase from FY2012 levels, and sets the Institute on target for a budget doubling by 2016.

The funding boosts translates into an extra $106.2 million, which the organization plans to use to improve manufacturing technologies that are “invented here, manufactured here and sold worldwide.”

Some voices say that this type of drive is part of President Obama's push to get re-elected. Stimulating the job market within the United States in these tough economic times could definitely do no harm.

The budget document also calls for NIST to work with the Pentagon and the US National Science Foundation on developing a series of advanced manufacturing technologies in an integrated manner, Science Mag reports.