HEP Budget Requests
The main goal of the HEP budget request is to be a description of the program which is compelling, consistent and reflecting research priorities. It should be noted that the DOE budget request is an overview of the program for the interested layman, and it is not intended to be comprehensive, prescriptive, or highly detailed. The current HEP budget request and some recent past requests as well as the appropriated funding amounts are listed below.
| Link to the request narrative | President's Requested Funding ($M) | Appropriated Funding ($M) |
| FY 2009 | 805 | - |
| FY 2008 | 782 | 689 |
| FY 2007 | 775 | 752 |
| FY 2006 | 714 | 717 |
The format of the DOE budget request narrative is set by the DOE Chief Financial Officer, the Office of Management and Budget, and the relevant Congressional appropriation committees. The major HEP Budget categories are a compromise between a "physics" basis and a "functional" basis:
- Proton accelerator-based physics
- Electron accelerator-based physics
- Non-accelerator-based physics
- Theoretical Physics
- Advanced Technology R&D
Mapping of these budget functions onto the OHEP management structure is fairly intuitive; most of the major subprograms have a dedicated program manager. See the OHEP organization chart for more details.
Evolution of the HEP budget process
In recent years, there has been more emphasis on budget integration, planning and transparency. This is motivated by customer feedback that earlier incarnations of the DOE budget request were somewhat lacking in these areas. We expect the content of these budget requests to evolve as part of this ongoing discussion about science policy and priorities.
As with many governmental functions, the DOE budget process is complicated, and often obscure to outsiders. This is due in part to the fact that there are many "customers" for budget data including DOE itself, other Executive Branch offices, Congress, DOE contractors, and the research community, and the fact that there are many additional constraints imposed by the budget and project approval process.
This summary is adapted from a presentation on DOE/HEP budgets to HEPAP in November 2007. For more details and the full presentation are here.
Program Goals and Annual Performance Targets
The Department of Energy's Strategic Plan identifies four strategic goals (one each for defense, energy, science, and environmental aspects of its mission) plus seven general goals that tie to the strategic goals. The HEP program supports the following goal:
World-Class Scientific Research Capacity: Provide world-class scientific research capacity needed to: ensure the success of Department missions in national and energy security; advance the frontiers of knowledge in physical sciences and areas of biological, medical, environmental, and computational sciences; provide world-class research facilities for the Nation's science enterprise.
The HEP program has one program goal which contributes to this general goal:
Explore the Fundamental Interactions of Energy, Matter, Time and Space: Understand the unification of fundamental particles and forces and the mysterious forms of unseen energy and matter that dominate the universe; search for possible new dimensions of space; and investigate the nature of time itself.
The HEP program identifies specific program performance targets every year that support this program goal. The completed performance targets for recent fiscal years and the status of the current year's performance targets can be accessed by clicking on the links below, which will take you to a list of the targets for the chosen year. Clicking on the description of a particular target will take you to the data for that target.
FY 2008 FY 2007 FY 2006 FY 2005 FY 2004
Last update: June 6, 2008
