High Energy Physics Budget & Process
HEP Budget Requests
The purpose of the HEP budget request is to describe the program and its research priorities to Congress. The budget request is an overview and should not be considered a exhaustive technical summary of the program for the scientific communtiy. The current HEP budget request and recent past requests, as well as 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 DOE Chief Financial Officer, the Office of Management and Budget and the relevant Congressional appropriation committees set the format of the DOE budget request. 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
Most of the major subprograms have a dedicated program manager and the Office of High Energy Physics organization chart has 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 complex. 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. There are also many additional constraints imposed by the budget and project approval process.
Program Goals and Annual Performance Targets
The Department of Energy's Strategic Plan identifies four strategic (one each for defense, energy, science and environmental aspects) and seven general 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 below, which takes 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
