(This post has been updated; please scroll below for the latest!)

Later this morning, President Obama will unveil his budget request for FY 2013. A number of budget briefings by Federal funding agencies are scheduled throughout the day, including one at 3:30pm EST at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Our colleagues at CRA’s Policy Blog will have a complete breakdown of the numbers for those agencies with ties to computing research. And we’ll highlight a few specific research priorities here later in the day. Stay tuned!

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Updated Monday, Feb. 13, at 1:00pm EST: The FY 2013 budget request has been released. More details on the Policy Blog, including this handy summary of the Administration’s R&D portions.

At NSF, the request calls for an 8.6% increase in funding to the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) (an additional $56 million) over FY 2012 levels, bringing the total funding for the directorate to $709.7 million.

The request captures CISE’s strong commitment to its core mission of advancing the frontiers of computing (funding to each of its three divisions is up approximately 9 percent) while also identifying several programs that have been elevated to a Foundation-wide level — in these cases, CISE plays a significant role, together with investments from multiple directorates and offices. Among the Foundation-wide investments:

• Cyber-Enabled Materials, Manufacturing, and Smart Systems (CEMMSS), $91 million requested (+82% over the FY 2012 estimate): “In FY 2013, the Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) program, funded jointly with [Engineering (ENG)], will be expanded by investments from [Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS)], [Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE)], and [Biological Sciences (BIO)] to accelerate advances in 21st century smart engineered systems. CEMMSS aims to establish a scientific basis for engineered systems interdependent with the physical world and social systems; synthesize multi-disciplinary knowledge to model and simulate systems in their full complexity and dynamics; and develop a smart systems technology framework. CEMMSS includes CISE investments in the National Robotics Initiative (NRI), an important multi-agency activity.” Together with CPS and NRI, CEMMSS falls under the Administration’s Advanced Manufacturing umbrella. See a fact sheet on NSF’s commitments in advanced manufacturing here.

• Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC), $69 million requested (+25.5%): “SaTC aligns NSF cybersecurity investments (including investments from [Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI)], SBE, MPS, and ENG) with the President’s national cybersecurity strategy, Trustworthy Cyberspace: Strategic Plan for the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Program. SaTC aims to support scientific foundations, induce change, maximize research impact, and accelerate the transition to practice. This investment also includes support for the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI). CISE will collaborate with EHR to support rigorous evaluation of cybersecure workforce development to enable a growing pipeline of researchers and educators, and to develop a citizenry that understands the security and privacy of the digital systems on which society depends.” The elevation of SaTC to a Foundation-wide initiative is illustrative of the importance of cybersecurity. See a NSF fact sheet on its cybersecurity commitments here.

• Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21), $16 million requested (+33%): “CISE will support investments to advance big data science and engineering research through core scientific and technological means of managing, analyzing, visualizing, and extracting useful information from large, diverse, distributed, and heterogeneous data sets so as to: accelerate the progress of scientific discovery and innovation; lead to new fields of inquiry that would not otherwise be possible; encourage the development of new data analytic tools and algorithms; facilitate scalable, accessible, and sustainable data infrastructure; and promote economic growth and improved quality of life. CISE will also target new computational infrastructure through investments in: (i) new functional capabilities in support of highly parallel computing; and (ii) large-scale data management systems — multi-core and multi-machine systems — with computational models and new programming paradigms for distributed approaches, such as cloud and cluster computing.”

• Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES), $11.5 million requested (+43.8%): “CISE will create a research community engaged in cyber-enabled sustainability to advance research in: large-scale, intelligent, data management and analysis; widespread, heterogeneous sensing and control; and optimization, modeling, and simulation of large, complex problems, including energy, computation and communication trade-offs.”

The request notes that CISE will continue the significant role it plays in ongoing NSF-wide initiatives, such as Innovation Corps (I-Corps) and Integrated NSF Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education (INSPIRE).

In addition, it continues a strong commitment for CISE’s existing cross-cutting initiatives, notably its Expeditions in Computing, Computing Education for the 21st Century (CE21), Smart Health and Wellbeing, and Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS) programs, etc. For instance, EARS will support for research in wireless communication, spectrum sharing, and mobile computing, as well as the development of wireless and spectrum testbeds.

To read more, check out the full CISE budget request here.

(Contributed by Erwin Gianchandani, CCC Director)