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##########