It Is Too Early to Evaluate Programs Long-Term Effectiveness of America COMPETES Act, but Agencies Could Improve Reporting

The four agencies that received funds authorized under the COMPETES Act obligated about $30 billion for new and expanded research and education programs and activities from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2010; scientific research obligations totaled about $27 billion and STEM education obligations totaled about $3 billion.

Three of the four agencies GAO reviewed -- Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology -- conducted basic scientific research. However, they did not consistently set a percentage funding goal to support high-risk, high-reward research--something that Congress provided they should do. In addition, two of these three agencies did not report this information with their annual budget submissions, as the law provides. Agency officials provided us with information indicating that they faced challenges in defining such research, and as a result, each program applied the criteria in the act differently. In addition, the directors of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) jointly issued a memo in August 2009 specifying that agencies conducting science research should explain in their budget submissions how they will support such activities and cooperate with them to develop datasets on federal science and technology investments, although this memorandum did not direct agencies on how to do so or direct them to set a percentage goal. Results in Brief Because the new programs authorized and funded under the COMPETES Act have only recently received and obligated funding, and because of the difficulties we and others have reported as being inherent in measuring outcomes of research and educational programs, it is too early to assess the effectiveness of these programs. However, all four of the agencies we reviewed are taking steps to oversee the implementation of various projects and monitor their progress. For example, the agencies are collecting various types of project data to monitor progress toward cost, schedule, and program outputs. We are recommending that DOE, NSF, and NIST each set a goal for funding high-risk, high-reward research and that the agencies coordinate in doing so. We are also recommending that the agencies include information on high-risk, high-reward research with their annual budget requests, which are available to the public.

In commenting on our draft report, Commerce agreed with both recommendations and NSF agreed with the recommendation to report to Congress. Additionally, OSTP, DOE, and NSF expressed concerns about aspects of our recommendation that agencies funded under the COMPETES Act identify a percentage goal for funding high-risk, high-reward research. Despite these concerns, we believe that agencies should seek to provide the information, as expressed in the sense of the Congress as provided in the act, and therefore believe this recommendation remains valid. (GAO-11-127R)