land security require collaborations with end users at the state and local levels of government so that programs can take into account the needs of these users, like technologies for first responders. Further, federal programs must be designed with an understanding of the critical role industry will play as a developer, producer, and user of counterterrorism technologies. Important questions include who the consumer of these technologies will be, whether there will be a commercial market for new products, and what role government procurement can productively play.

Despite these problems, the nation’s research system, with vast and diverse capabilities spread among universities, national and federal laboratories, and industry, provides a unique infrastructure and sound basis for mounting aggressive programs in the kinds of crosscutting R&D discussed in this chapter. The challenge for government leaders is to harness this capacity for the creation of a greatly expanded and coordinated national S&T agenda for counterterrorism. This will require a commitment to providing significant new funding and to sustaining the programs over a number of years.