SSTI Digest

The deepest mine in the U.S. has been selected by the National Science Foundation as site of its Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory. Also known as the “Homestake” in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the site contains 375 miles of tunnels, some extending more than 8,000 feet into the earth.



Why build a national laboratory with some components more than a mile below the earth’s surface? Because the unique environment deep under the earth allows for some very interesting experiments to occur. In the field of particle physics for example, thousands of feet of rock can be used to shield equipment from the cosmic rays that make particle detection difficult. In microbiology, tiny organisms living without sunlight miles below the surface with the ability to degrade waste and produce energy can be observed and studied. And in the earth sciences, geophysical characteristics of the earth’s crust including thermal properties and tectonic stresses can be further explored.

The National Science Foundation has released the 2004 results of its annual survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development series. The report provides a breakdown of federal R&D obligations by R&D and R&D plant for federal agency, type of performer, character of work, field of science and engineering, and geography. Estimates for 2005 and 2006 obligations are included for most statistical tables, with the exception of geographic distribution of funds. The most recent data available by state is for fiscal year 2004.



Securing more federal R&D funds captivates significant attention from many state TBED initiatives. Tables 128-131 provide historical data by state from 1985-2004.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) projects U.S. spending for R&D in 2006 will be 6 percent higher than it was in 2005, once all figures are compiled for all sources of funds surveyed: industry, the federal government, universities, colleges and other nonprofit institutions. (Note: State sources of funds are captured only through the separate surveys of industrial and university performers.) Total 2006 U.S. R&D expenditures are expected to surpass $342.9 billion, up $19 billion from 2005.

Browsing the business section of a bookstore may yield dozens of titles purporting to explain the process of innovation. This newsletter and most others serving the nation’s policymakers and science and technology communities have covered reports calling for a national innovation strategy. Unfortunately, most meetings on the subject have to begin by developing a working definition of the term innovation that most can accept. The use or overuse of the word, particularly in calls for needing more of it or business books on how to do it, threatens to reduce innovation to a meaningless buzzword that loses hope of having any real value.

 

Fortunately, slightly removed from political circles, there are those interested in understanding the basis of innovation and discovery with a scientific grounding. The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently released the proceedings of an August 2006 workshop exploring what is known about how innovation and discovery occurs on the individual and team level. The panelists' conclusion? Not much, particularly related to understanding engineering and design.

The American science and technology workforce is undergoing a major demographic shift. A report issued last week by the National Science Foundation shows that more women are participating in university science and engineering (S&E) programs than ever before. The biannual NSF report, entitled Women, Minorities, and Persons With Disabilities in Science and Engineering, provides a broad overview of demographic trends within university S&E programs. In 2007, the report's overriding theme is that although U.S. science and technology fields remain predominantly male, trends at the university-level indicate this may be changing.

 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released the 2005 statistics for science and engineering (S&E) doctorate awards. Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2005 details trends in doctorate awards by S&E field and recipient characteristics, institutions awarding doctorates, and postgraduation plans of recipients.



Using NSF and U.S. Census Bureau data, SSTI has prepared a table providing state ranking for doctorate awards by major field and state rankings for the total S&E doctorates awarded per 100,000 residents. The top five states in 2005 for total S&E doctorates awarded per 100,000 residents are the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware and Maryland.



SSTI's table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/010807t.htm



NSF’s Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2005 is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf07305/

The number of doctorates awarded in the U.S. within science and engineering (S&E) fields reached an all-time high in 2005, according to a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) issue brief. After the previous high of 27,273 S&E doctorates awarded in 1998, the number decreased for four years until 2002, and has steadily increased the past three years to the 2005 number of 27,974 Ph.D. graduates.

 

NSF’s Division of Science Resources Statistics reports that several groups, including women and non-U.S. citizens, also received a record number of S&E doctorates in 2005. In fact, from 2001 to 2005, S&E doctorates awarded to non-citizens increased by 25 percent, which accounted for almost all of the recent growth in the number of total doctorates awarded. The issue brief indicates there is little evidence of a decline of non-citizen S&E doctorate attainment since the terrorist attacks in September 2001.

 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a total of $76 million over the next five years to fund multi-university collaborations to support four cross-disciplinary centers to address fundamental questions in the areas of next-generation polymers, climate modeling, microbial oceanography and coastal environments.



With the new awards, NSF currently supports 17 Science and Technology Centers that involve nearly 100 academic institutions, national laboratories, industrial organizations or other entities. The centers build intellectual and physical infrastructures within and between disciplines, and bring together the creation, integration, and transfer of new knowledge to the mainstream and industrial communities.



Centers offer the research and engineering community an effective mechanism to undertake long-term scientific and technological research and education activities, to explore better and more effective ways to educate students and to develop mechanisms to ensure the timely transition of research and education advances into service in society.

The recently released Economic Development Strategic Plan for the Commonwealth of Virginia includes measurable benchmarks to gauge the building blocks for economic development. As required by legislation, each of Virginia's governors must establish an Economic Development Strategic Plan within his first year in office. The 2006 version is the result of collaboration between the cabinet of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, business leaders, economic development professionals, and private citizens.

 

The report details nine broad goals, which include such topics as: encouraging workforce development, emphasizing regional cooperation, supporting research and development, and strengthening tourism.

 

To accomplish many of these goals, several strategies are listed. Some of these strategies include benchmarks that may be of interest to the tech-based economic development community. By the year 2010, Virginia intends to:

With an eye toward easing traffic congestion, air pollution, and distributing employment opportunities more widely around Virginia, Gov. Timothy Kaine has created an Office of Telework Promotion and Broadband Assistance. The Office will encourage and promote telework activities for public and private employers, and work to advance innovative models that expedite the deployment of "last-mile" broadband technologies throughout the Commonwealth.



"Telework is a family-friendly, business-friendly public policy that helps us recruit and retain a high-quality workforce in a competitive job market," Governor Kaine said. "It also protects environmental quality and promotes energy conservation by reducing traffic congestion and vehicle emissions. Telework also allows a better balance between work and family."

Synthetic biology, quality of life technologies, fluid power, mid-infrared technologies, and structured organic composites are the five technology areas supported through the new Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) awards announced by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The centers will share $75.3 million to develop cross-disciplinary research programs advancing technologies that address major societal problems and provide the basis for new industries.



For more than two decades, the ERC program has fostered interdisciplinary research and education collaborations, in close partnership with industry, based on the realities of technological innovation and the development of new products and services. States often incorporate ERCs and state-sponsored university-industry research centers into their tech-based economic development strategies. In each center, scientists and engineers from a variety of disciplines collaborate on broad-based high-risk engineering research, developing fundamental engineering knowledge and test beds for important emerging technologies.

Based on the two versions of the FY 2007 budget working their ways respectively through the House and Senate, the National Science Foundation (NSF) appears to be positioned to receive its first significant increase in funding in many years. Both chambers' versions of the NSF appropriations provide increases above the FY06 appropriations in excess of 7 percent, with the full House approving an increase of 7.9 percent in June. The version approved last Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee provides a 7.4 percent increase to the nation's leading agency for science. Much of the increase is consistent with the President's request to support his American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI).



NSF's appropriations are included in H.R. 5672, the Commerce-Justice-Science bill. More information is available at: http://thomas.loc.gov