IP: PCAST Meeting

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News
> Number 171: December 22, 1999
>
> President's Science and Technology Advisors Meet
>
> The President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology
> (PCAST) met on December 10.  They reviewed activities by various
> PCAST panels, and then heard presentations on 21st century
> challenges and opportunities for the R&D enterprise, and steps
> the State Department can take to better incorporate science into
> the foreign policy process.
>
> One PCAST panel, chaired by MIT President Charles Vest, recently
> addressed the field of nanotechnology.  Presidential science
> advisor Neal Lane, co-chair of PCAST, noted that as the
> Administration prepares its FY 2001 budget, it is "looking very
> hard at" the government's role in this field.  Vest reported a
> strong consensus that this is "the right moment in time to
> initiate and sustain a federal effort" in nanotechnology R&D.
> His panel found "a real likelihood...that it will lead ultimately
> to profoundly important new technologies."  The panel recommended
> that a federal nanotechnology effort be supported.
>
> A panel chaired by Peter Raven, Engelmann Professor of Biology at
> Washington University in St. Louis, reviewed a National Science
> Board (NSB) report on environmental R&D within NSF.  While
> Raven's panel endorsed the NSB's recommendations for a
> significant funding increase (from $600 million now to $1.6
> billion in five years) and increased interdisciplinary research
> on environmental issues at NSF, the PCAST panel called for a
> broader review across the entire federal portfolio of
> environmental research efforts.
>
> David Hamburg, Professor Emeritus of the Carnegie Corporation,
> discussed actions of PCAST's education panel.  The panel has been
> successful in catalyzing interdisciplinary and cross-agency
> research efforts, as demonstrated by the recently-established
> Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI) among NSF, NIH
> and the Education Department.  Hamburg said he was "really struck
> [by the] remarkable improvement" in interagency cooperation.  The
> panel also seeks to "get research on human learning to the same
> quality as research on human health."  Hamburg was pleased that
> the "methodological rigor [of the IERI grants] stands out above
> most of the past work."
>
> The national security panel, chaired by former Lockheed Martin
> CEO Norman Augustine, addressed information systems security.
> Given society's  increasing dependence on them, Augustine stated,
> information systems are "brittle, vulnerable to interference....
> While all [sectors] have a stake in the continued functioning of
> the systems," he said, "no one individual or organization has the
> ability to ensure [their] continued viability."  The government
> should play a leadership role, he said, in bringing interested
> parties together, coordinating efforts, and providing seed money.
> He reported that President Clinton agreed with the panel's
> recommendation and has set aside $2 million for planning
> purposes.
>
> The first invited speaker was Frank Loy, Under Secretary for
> Global Affairs at the State Department.  He spoke on utilizing
> scientific and technical expertise in the development of foreign
> policy.  His remarks will be highlighted in FYI #172.
>
> Former NSF Director Erich Bloch (now with the Council on
> Competitiveness) and Frank Press, former Presidential Science
> Advisor and former President of the National Academy of Sciences,
> gave their views on issues that will confront the R&D community
> in the 21st century.  "It's difficult to point out challenges to
> the R&D enterprise when the economy is in good shape," Bloch
> noted.  "We must be doing something right!"  The concerns and
> opportunities he raised included the shortage of skilled workers
> and related issues of immigration and poor pre-college education;
> global economic competition due to the rapid diffusion of
> technology; the dramatic decline in the federal share of R&D as a
> percent of GDP; the R&D tax credit and questions of its utility
> to small companies and start-ups; the continuation of corporate
> memory in science policy across the change of Administration; the
> complexity and difficulty of collaboration among public and
> private sectors; and the still-untapped potential to exploit the
> Internet for education, training and research.
>
> Press led off with the question, "How much money is enough for
> science?" and answered with the NAS recommendation that the U.S.
> maintain world leadership in some key fields and operate at
> world-class levels in most other fields.  He expressed concern
> over the disparity in funding between the biomedical and physical
> science fields, and urged a more coherent decision-making process
> for R&D funding.  Press questioned whether trends in university-
> industry cooperation would change the nature of universities, and
> urged more professional respect for post-docs.  He commended
> trends in data archiving policies which make available to any
> scientist, after some time delay, the data from large, federally-
> funded research projects.
>
> Vest defended industry funding of university research, and
> repeated complaints heard from researchers that federal funding
> is becoming too risk-averse.  Press replied that he was not
> criticizing the trend, but warning of its potential
> ramifications.  Bloch suggested that federal funding agencies set
> aside a small percentage of funds for risky research outside the
> peer-review process.  Lane (like Bloch a former NSF Director)
> noted that it is largely reliance on peer review which protects
> NSF from congressional earmarking.
>
> Lane remarked that the OSTP staff was "working very hard" on the
> FY 2001 budget in a bipartisan spirit, and attempting to address
> issues of "balance and priority."  OSTP Assistant Director for
> Technology  Duncan Moore reported that OSTP, seeking technology
> issues to address in the last year of the Clinton Administration
> and look to for the future, recently held a Summit on Innovation.
> Trade policy, peer review, antitrust law, standards, the talent
> pool, unification of research policies across the federal
> government, intellectual property, and use of the Internet were
> all raised as topics.  Moore said OSTP intends, by next spring,
> to develop both short- and long-term recommendations for
> addressing some of these issues.
>
> ###############
> Audrey T. Leath
> Public Information Division
> The American Institute of Physics
> fyi () aip org
> (301) 209-3094
> http://www.aip.org/enews/fyi/
> ##END##########