SSTI Digest

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released an assessment of its Engineering Research Centers (ERC) Program. The two-part study looked at two key aspects of the ERC program: ERC- industry interaction and effectiveness of former ERC graduate students in the workforce.

The ERC-industry portion of the study found that the benefits received by member companies is directly related to the length and level of involvement in a center. The longer a firm participates and the more direct personal interaction there is between corporate and center personnel, the more direct benefits the firm will have received and the greater the impact on company competitiveness.

The study cited three factors in promoting industry participation: (1) the existence of a champion for the ERC within the company; (2) the receptivity of company technical staff to ERC ideas and results; and (3) management support for the ERC partnership within the company.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has decided to reclassify its R&D budget, which will result in a reduction of funding available for its Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR). The reclassification was recommended by Inspector General Linda Sundro. NSF Director Neal Lane has concurred with the recommendations.

Each agency with an extramural R&D budget in excess of $100 million must set aside a percentage of their extramural R&D funding for the SBIR program. In FY 1997, the SBIR set-aside was 2.5%. Congress also authorized a smaller set-aside, currently 0.15% of the extramural R&D budget, for the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program.

Research and development expenditures in 1997 are expected to reach $205.7 billion, a 6.5 percent increase over 1996's $193.2 billion in spending. Since 1994, R&D spending has been increasing at a rate of more than 5 percent a year, according to a recent National Science Foundation Data Brief.

The federal share of the nation's R&D expenditures is expected to continue declining -- to 30.5 percent of R&D expenditures. The federal share of the nation's R&D funds first fell below 50 percent in 1978 and was consistently between 44 and 47 percent from 1980 to 1990. Since then, the federal share has dropped steadily.

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Office of Science and Technology Infrastructure (OSTI) has announced that funds will be available for additional Science and Technology Centers (STC). NSF is currently soliciting proposals from qualified candidates for the Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships Program.

NSF established the STC Program in 1987, and charged it with pursuing university-based multidisciplinary research, encouraging knowledge transfer to non-academic sectors of society, and establishing innovative education activities.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected three centers to conduct and coordinate earthquake engineering research for the nation. The contracts call for NSF to invest $2 million a year for five years in each of the three centers for a total of $30 million.

NSF selected the three centers for their individual and complementary strengths. The University of California at Berkeley's Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center will develop technologies to reduce urban earthquake losses.

The second center, the University of Illinois Mid-America Earthquake Center at the Urbana-Champaign campus, will emphasize reducing potential earthquake losses in the central and eastern U.S. by concentrating on problems associated with low-frequency seismic events.

Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) has adopted a new strategic plan through the year 2000. The new plan considers the appropriate balance between short-term and long-term goals and places CIT in a position to serve Virginia as it builds its 21st century knowledge-based economy.

The most significant change in the plan is the development of CIT's role in shaping Virginia's plans for technology. CIT will be a leader in the Commonwealth's efforts to develop and implement a technology strategy. Toward that goal, CIT has already assisted in the development of A Blueprint for Technology-Based Economic Growth in Virginia.

The Blueprint analyzes four key issues related to technology development. It also outlines specific actions Virginia must take to strengthen its economic competitiveness.

Robert A. Eisenstein, Ph.D., has been appointed Assistant Director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The appointment will become effective September 8.

Eisenstein has served as the director of the physics division at NSF since 1992. As director, he played a significant role both in the management of large-scale projects such as the Laser Interferometer Gravity Wave Observatory, and in the establishment of physics divisions in biological physics and complex phenomena.

NSF Director Bob Lane stated, "Bob has the leadership and wisdom to help pave a new road for integrative, multi-disciplinary, and increasingly interdependent science and engineering."

Dr. Eisenstein received his masters and doctoral degrees in physics from Yale University, and his AB degree in physics from Oberlin College. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Women and minorities continue to take fewer high-level mathematics and science courses in high school; earn fewer bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in science and engineering (S&E); and remain less likely to be employed in S&E jobs than white males.

Those are the conclusions of a new government report, Women, Minorities and Persons With Disabilities in Science and Engineering 1996. The National Science Foundation (NSF) report reveals progress as well as signs of continued underrepresentation. Among the report's findings:

Criteria used by one of the largest funders of basic research to evaluate research proposals is slated to change in 1997. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is revising the criteria used to evaluate approximately 30,000 proposals per year and is seeking comments on the proposed criteria.

NSF has undertaken the process to revise the criteria because "an examination...is prudent from time to time. The current criteria have not changed since 1981, and the proposed changes are intended to make the criteria clearer to the community and to bring them more in line with the 1994 NSF Strategic Plan."

The current criteria ask reviewers to evaluate a proposal for: 1) research performance competence, 2) intrinsic merit of the research, 3) utility or relevance of the research, and 4) the effect on the infrastructure of science and engineering.

A panel of external evaluators has concluded that the National Science Foundation's State/Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (S/I/UCRC) Program supports NSF's strategic goals. The panel also found that "the development of cooperative research centers involving states, industries and NSF can be an important contributing element to maintaining and developing a competitive US industry."

The S/I/UCRC program was established in 1991 as the result of discussions between NSF and the National Governors' Association's Science and Technology Council of the States (STCS). There have been three competitions for awards and a total of 13 awards have been made. This is the first time a Committee of Visitors (COV) has evaluated the program.

President Clinton recently announced his intention to nominate Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Oregon State University, to the National Science Board, an advisory body to the National Science Foundation. The National Science Board recommends overall national policies for promoting basic research and education in the sciences.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected 13 new Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, bringing the total number of centers to 24. NSF support for the new centers is expected to amount to $105 million over the next five year years. The centers are university-based programs that support interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary materials research and education.

The new centers are located at the following universities: