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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTERS
Principles and Guidelines
. .
A Report by the
Panel on Science and Technology Centers
National Academy of Sciences
Washington, D.C. 1987
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The National Academy of Sciences is a private, self-perpetuating
society of distinguished scholars in scientific and engineering research,
dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and their use for
the general welfare. Under the authority of its congressional charter of
1863, the Academy has a working mandate that calls upon it to advise the
federal government on scientific and technical matters. The Academy
carries out this mandate primarily through the National Research Council,
which it administers jointly with the National Academy of Engineering and
the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Frank Press is President of the National
Academy of Sciences.
The study summarized in this report was supported by the National
Science Foundation under Contract No. MPS-8713825.
Available from: Panel on Science and Technology Centers, Room
206, National Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Avenue, NW,
Washington, DC 20418
Printed in the United States of America
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PANEL ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTERS
Richard N. Zare (Chairman), Stanford University
Norman M. Bradburn, University of Chicago
Praveen Chaudhari, IBM Corporation
Ernest G. Jaworski, Monsanto Company
Daniel Kleppner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Joshua Lederberg, Rockefeller University
Donald J. Lewis, University of Michigan
William Press, Harvard University
Leon T. Silver, California Institute of Technology
Larry Smarr, University of Illinois
Joseph E. Varner, Washington University
Staff
Norman Metzger, Study Director
Stephen Merrill, Writer
Gretchen Schneider, Administrative Assistant
· · -
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COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Frank Press (President), National Academy of Sciences
James D. Ebert (Vice President), President, Carnegie Institution
of Washington
Bryce Crawford, Jr. (Home Secretary), Regents Professor of Chemistry,
University of Minnesota
William E. Gordon (Foreign Secretary),-Distinguished Professor
Emeritus, Rice University
Elkan R. Blout (Treasurer), Harkness Professor, Harvard Medical
School, and Dean for Academic Affairs, Harvard School of Public Health
Councilors
Francisco Ayala, Professor of Genetics, University of California,
Davis
Albert M. Clogston, Center for Materials Science, Los Alamos National
Laboratory
Harry B. Gray, Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry, California
Institute of Technology
Arthur Kelman, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Senior Research
Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Lawrence R. Klein, Benjamin Franklin Professor of Economics,
University of Pennsylvania
1V
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Marian E. Koshland, Professor of Immunology, University of
California, Berkeley
Francis E. Low, Institute Professor and Professor of Physics,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Paul A. Marks, President, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Matthew S. Meselson, Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural
Sciences, Fairchild Biochemistry Building, Harvard University
Donald H. Osterbrock, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Lick
Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz
Alexander Rich, Sedgewick Professor of Biophysics, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Carroll ~ Williams, Benjamin Bussey Professor of Biology, Harvard
University
v
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PREFACE
The nation's economy is driven increasingly by the development and
commercialization of new technologies. Competition for creating and
applying these new technologies is fierce and worldwide. In an effort to
meet this challenge, President Reagan, in his 1987 State of the Union
message, proposed several initiatives to enhance the nation's economic
competitiveness, including the establishment by federal research agencies
of Science and Technology Centers. The President described these centers
as "new university-based, interdisciplinary 'Science and Technology
Centers' that will focus on fundamental science that directly contributes
to the nation's economic competitiveness."
The National Science Foundation (NSF) intends to begin supporting such
Science and Technology Centers in fiscal year 1988. To accommodate this
new program, as well as to provide increased funding for traditional
research modes and for facilities, the President is requesting yearly
budget increases that are intended to double the NSF budget by 1992.
In a letter to National Academy of Sciences (NAS) President Frank
Press dated February 11, 1987, the Director of the Foundation, Erich
Bloch, asked the NAS to provide guidance by June 1 for NSF's
implementation of the President's proposal. A copy of this letter is
appended to this report.
A panel was formed under the guidance of the Council of the National
Academy of Sciences. This panel has taken a broad view of its charge to
advise the Foundation. Aware that the President's proposal and the
Foundation's response have caused some concern in the scientific
community, the panel has considered how to ensure that centers encourage
individual initiative and scientific innovation.
The panel has examined
o the role of the National Science Foundation in the President's
program for Science and Technology Centers;
vat
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o the relationship between Science and Technology Centers and other
modes of research support by the Foundation;
o essential and desirable features of NSF-funded Science and
Technology Centers;
o mechanisms and criteria for soliciting and selecting proposals to
encourage the most promising ideas;
o principles and methods of governance, including the relationships
of the centers to their parent universities, the Foundation, and
their scientific constituencies; and
o concerns raised within the scientific community by the proposed
expansion of the center mode of research.
The panel met twice -- March 28 - 29, in Washington, D.C., and April
15 - 17, in Palo Alto, California. During those meetings it had the
benef it of extended discussions with the Director and other senior
officials of the National Science Foundation. Much of this discussion
concerned the meaning of the concepts "science and technology" and
industrial and state participation as a "prerequisite." In neither case
was the panel asked to adopt restrictive meanings. The panel agreed
subsequently that, although the government-wide program for Science and
Technology Centers should eventually embrace the entire spectrum from
science to technology, the NSF portion of the program should focus
primarily on basic science. Further, participation by industry, states,
and other sectors, although possibly including financial support, should
emphasize intellectual involvement.
Finally, the panel attempted to identify areas, suitable for the
center mode, that seem most promising in relation to economic
competitiveness. While in many cases is was possible to foresee
evolutionary advances, the panel realized that revolutionary advances are
often the most important; and, in this area, past experience shows that no
panel or government agency can forecast with assurance which fields, or
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combination of fields, will produce new discoveries of major importance to
the nation's economy. Therefore, the panel quite deliberately chose not
to prejudge which areas might be particularly relevant to economic
competitiveness.
The panel sought the advice of the chairs of the National Science
Foundation and the National Research Council advisory boards on various
research disciplines and of W. Dale Compton, who chaired the panel of the
National Academy of Engineering that, in 1983, provided guidelines for the
Foundation's creation of Engineering Research Centers. The panel also
examined the operation of various types of centers, including the
Materials Research Laboratories, the Engineering Research Centers, and
several centers in particular fields of science and mathematics. A
subcommittee of the Council of the National Academy of Sciences reviewed
the panel's report.
The limitations on the panel's work should be clearly understood.
rarer, INS recommendations were framed in terms of the National Science
Foundation's program for Science and Technology Centers and do not
necessarily apply to the companion programs of other federal agencies.
Second, the panel, in its brief lifetime, was unable to undertake a
and evaluation of the relative strengths and
weaknesses or Act ~ Brent modes of research support -- from individual
investigator grants to group awards to centers in various forms. Such an
examination is needed and is under way by a panel of the Committee on
Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP) of the National Academy
of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine.
That report is expected to be available early in 1988.
r' _ ~ ~ .
thorough examination
~ . ^^
Richard N. Zare
Chairman
Panel on Science and Technology Centers
.
1X
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CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Features of NSF Science and Technology Centers, 2
NSF Management, 3
Cautions, 3
I. INTRODUCTION
Page
Economic Competition, Research,
and the National Science Foundation, 5
Goals, 5
Balancing Modes of Research, 6
II. THE MISSION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF
NSF-FUNDED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTERS
What Are Science and Technology Centers? 9
Theme, 1 0
Education, 11
Centers and Their Universities, 1 1
Models for Science and Technology Centers, 12
Outreach and Participation, 13
III. SOLICITATION AND SELECTION OF PROPOSALS
General Guidelines, 15
Funding, Review, and Selection, 16
Criteria for Selection, 17
Scientific Quality, 17
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Intellectual Theme, 17
Education and Training, 17
Staffing, 18
Size and Cost, 18
Outreach and Participation, 19
IV. GOVERNANCE OF SCIEN7C:iE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTERS
Relationship to Universities, 21
NSF Review, 21
V. SOME CAUTIONARY OBSERVATIONS
APPENDICES
.
Letter from Erich Bloch to Frank Press, 29
Panel Biographies, 31
· ~
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