Skip to main content

Future R&D Environments A Report for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (2002) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

Executive Summary
Pages 1-6

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 1...
... , industrial management, the economy, and society that are likely to affect research and development as well as the introduction of technological innovations over the next 5 to 10 years. NIST believed that such a study would provide useful supporting information as it planned future programs to achieve its goals of strengthening the U.S.
Read the entire page →
From page 2...
... Each is characterized by an extremely rapid rate of change of knowledge; has obvious and wide utility; and will benefit from advances in the others, so that the potential for synergy among them is particularly great. Within the biological sciences and engineering, the successful characterization of the human genome, combined with new techniques for creating, labeling, and analyzing gene microarrays, is likely to lead to rapid advances in the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of many genetically related diseases.
Read the entire page →
From page 3...
... It will also make possible new approaches to patient data collection, storage, and analysis, with an expansion in both telemedicine and e-medicine. In materials science and technology, the exploitation of techniques for creating materials with controlled features at nanoscale dimensions will clearly occupy much research attention, leading to materials with unusual and highly desirable physical properties.
Read the entire page →
From page 4...
... These include issues of government funding of research and development, with particular concerns about, on the one hand, whether adequate investments will be made in long-term basic research and, on the other hand, whether attempts to distinguish research from development will run counter to the dynamics of innovation. There are also policy questions related to a variety of regulatory issues, from antitrust legislation to medical technology regulation to intellectual property protection to standards development.
Read the entire page →
From page 5...
... New developments in the biological sciences that make possible genetic alteration, cloning, and stem-cell-initiated organ development raise issues of personal and religious values for many people and lead to strong political pressures to regulate research activities and applications in these areas. All of this suggests that pull factors will be increasingly important in the next several years in determining the direction of technological innovation.
Read the entire page →
From page 6...
... The adaptiveness of the system would also benefit from more coordination among the different institutional sectors of the national innovation system (industry, academia, the nonprofit sector, and government) and from the increased technical literacy of citizens.
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • pull factors
  • political pressures
  • materials development
  • technological changes
  • technological innovation

  • genetically modified
  • central research
  • economic considerations
  • focused analyses
  • run counter

  • growing entrepreneurial
  • gene microarrays
  • developed nations
  • property protection
  • modified organisms

  • issues introduced
  • political environment
  • medical technology
  • inhibit applications
  • nanoscale dimensions

  • extraordinarily robust
  • social concerns
  • extend beyond
  • hardware capabilities
  • increasing hardware

  • shorter range
  • cellular development
  • development raise
  • questions related
  • genetic alteration


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.