WASHINGTON NEWS

FROM THE FEDERATION OF MATERIALS SOCIETIES

NOVEMBER 3, 2003

FUTURE OF DOE SCIENCE

The Secretary of Energy Advisory Board's Task Force on the Future of Science Programs at the Department of Energy has submitted its final report for public comment.  The report will be considered for adoption at the next SEAB meeting, date to be determined. 

The report declares that "Our future economy, security, health and quality of life fundamentally depend on continuing advances in science and technology.  Frontier research will determine whether we can produce, store and distribute secure, sustainable, clean and affordable energy, and whether we can develop and produce the new materials, devices, systems and processes that will enable our industries to win in the competitive, knowledge-based, global economy."  The task force calls on DOE to "lead our nation effectively through its stewardship and assessment of critical areas of scientific research and advanced technology by:

• Appointing an Under Secretary for Science;
• Developing and sustaining an increased level of research and development funding;
• Administering its programs using modern management tools and merit-based decisions;
• Establishing critically important and inspirational new scientific programs addressing:
  • Energy production, storage, distribution, or conservation,
  • Advanced computation for basic sciences; and
  • Frontier, internationally-leading research facilities for fundamental science;
• Improving its congressional, intergovernmental and public relations and communications; and
• Inspiring, attracting, educating and training the best and brightest as scientists and engineers for careers in DOE-related fields."

• Support the acquisition, through purchase, upgrade, or development, of major state-of-the-art instrumentation for research, research training, and integrated research/education activities at institutions;
• Improve access to and increase use of modern research and research training instrumentation by scientists, engineers, and graduate and undergraduate students;
• Enable academic departments or cross-departmental units to create well-equipped learning environments that integrate research with education;
• Foster the development of the next generation of instrumentation for research and research training; and
• Promote partnerships between academic researchers and private sector instrument developers.

The MRI program assists in the acquisition or development of major research instrumentation that is too costly for support through other NSF programs. NSF particularly encourages collaborations between disciplinary scientists and private sector experts in the area of instrument manufacture, noting that "working together within a framework of concurrent engineering, such partnerships have the potential to create new products with wide scientific and commercial impact.

The solicitation is at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04511/nsf04511.htm

The Defense Science Board is conducting a review of the focus and direction of DARPA’s science and technology work. As directed by Acting Defense Department acquisition chief Michael Wynne, a Science Board task force "will conduct a one-time evaluation of DARPA’s current technology portfolio to confirm that DARPA has advanced research projects based on sound, proven scientific and technological foundations, practices and methods, and are of high value to DOD’s operational mission." DARPA’s Information Awareness Office has been the focus of controversy over its Total Information Awareness research project which was cancelled by Congress in the recently passed Defense appropriations act after concerns were raised that it could be used to spy on U.S. citizens. Most observers discount that as the impetus behind the new review, however, pointing to language in the Senate version of the Defense authorization bill (yet to be finalized as this report was written) directing DOD to commission a study by the National Academy of Sciences to "assess the basic research portfolio of the services and DARPA." The balance between basic and applied research, and between research conducted Defense-wide (i.e., DARPA) and research "devolved" to the individual services, is increasingly controversial.