The budget request, an 84 percent increase over the current fiscal year, will fund the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The White House called the effort "a top priority."

About 70 percent of the proposed funding will go to university research, "which will help meet the growing demand for workers with nano-scale science and engineering skills," the administration said.

Funding will be earmarked for four different research efforts: fundamental nano-science research; centers and networks of excellence; development of a research infrastructure, including metrology and modeling capabilities; ethical, legal and societal implications of nano-technology; and education and training.

It will also fund a series of "grand challenges," including improving computer speed and efficiency as well as doubling the energy efficiency of solar cells.

Federal agencies participating in the initiative (and their respective total funding) include the National Science Foundation ($217 million), the departments of Defense ($110 million) and Energy ($96 million), the National Institute of Health ($36 million), NASA ($20 million) and the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology ($18 million).

The proposal is likely to meet with approval in Congress where committees overseeing R&D spending have endorsed a national effort to boost nano-technology.

Separately on Friday, House Science Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., sent a letter urging President Clinton to make research and development a budget priority in fiscal 2001.

"I've heard some very positive comments by the administration recently about science emerging as a budget priority. I'm hopeful these encouraging words reflect the administration's actual priorities and are not merely promises within the context of an across-the-board government spending spree," Sensenbrenner wrote.

Lawmakers and the administration remain under spending limits imposed in a 1997 budget deal. However, both sides have repeatedly exceeded the limits in recent months.