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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
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
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 · · -
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
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
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
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 V111
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
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 X1 .15
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 · ~ X11 .21 23 .27