ANAHEIM, Calif. -- A panel of scientists and research program evaluators will address the national science policy issue, "How Will New Accountability Requirements Affect the Environment for Research?" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Saturday morning, January 23.
New requirements include the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), which requires strategic plans, annual performance plans, and annual performance reports. Emphasis is on predicting and quantifying the results and "value-added" of government programs.
"There is justifiable concern within the scientific community that the new accountability requirements may harm the research environment, and hinder scientific advance if applied inappropriately," notes symposium organizer Gretchen Jordan of the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories. "A correct understanding of the nature of research environment and its outcomes is important when formulating the measurement of research."
The panel will include managers and evaluators of research programs from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Georgia Institute of Technology, and Performance Management Network of Canada.
Dr. Jordan is directing an ongoing study on assessing and improving the environment for research at U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories. This study has identified factors in the research environment that scientists believe contribute to their ability to do excellent research.
"The session is guaranteed to be a lively and interactive because many scientists are still uninformed about the requirements and programs -- reaction to them, and feel strongly that these requirements are harmful," she says.
Panelists will share their experience with the positive and negative impacts of the new requirements with the audience. Findings from a study, "Research and the GPRA", just completed by the National Academy of Science's Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (COSEPUP) will also be discussed.
Presenters will be Dr. Patricia Dehmer, Associate Director of the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences; Dr. Bernard McDonald, Deputy Director of the NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences; Dr. Mildred Dresselhaus, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics at MIT and member of the National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP), Dr. Susan Cozzens, Director of the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech; and Mr. Steve Montague, evaluation consultant to Canada's federal science and technology programs.
Sandia is a multiprogram DOE laboratory operated by Lockheed Martin Corporation. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has R&D programs contributing to national defense, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.