Computing Research Policy Blog


Posts categorized under: Policy

Research Under Fire


The Berkeleyan, a publication of UC Berkeley, has a great, in-depth piece on a trend we’ve noted and complained about in this space quite often: the increasing use of restrictions on federally supported fundamental research and its impact on university-based research. I’ll just cite a little bit, but I urge you to read the article. […]

Appropriations Reorganization Update: NSF and NASA to Energy and Water?


House Appropriations Chair Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is apparently proposing the most radical restructuring of the Appropriations Committee in decades, according to an article appearing in today’s Congress Daily (sub. req’d). Peter Cohn, writes (sorry, I can’t find it online), that the proposal would pare the 13 appropriations committees down to 10 and would move NASA […]

R&D and Legislative Priorities: Senate Edition


The Senate Majority and Minority leaders announced yesterday their respective parties’ “legislative priorities” for the new session of Congress, highlighting different perspectives on the relative importance of federal support for R&D. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that “expanding high-speed Internet access, targeting terrorists, ending tax incentives for U.S. companies located overseas and increasing […]

EU Says Bureaucracy Hurting IT Research Efforts, Competitiveness


ComputerWeekly.com notes today that an EU commission charged with assessing the state of EU IT research efforts has concluded that the effort is failing because of insufficient funding and heavy-handed bureaucracy. The panel said the research was vital for competitiveness but that it more investment and less bureaucracy are required for success. The panel was […]

PITAC Approves Cyber Security Report Calling For Significant Increases in Basic Cyber R&D


The President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) achieved consensus yesterday on the final draft of its report on the status of the federal cyber security R&D effort, finding that support for civilian-oriented, fundamental cyber security research is seriously inadequate, the pool of researchers is insufficient, and that coordination between funding agencies is lacking. Judging by […]

New NAS Report on 6.1 Research at DOD


[I may be on vacation in soggy LA, but computing research policy waits for no one! So here’s an update from the road…] The National Academies have released their long-awaited report, Assessment of Department of Defense Basic Research. This is the study that was requested by the Senate Armed Services Committee in the FY 2004 […]

Competitiveness Report Cites Need for “Significantly” Increased Federal R&D Funds


The Council on Competitiveness’ long-awaited report on their National Innovation Initiative is now out (pdf) and contains some very strong recommendations in support of the federal role in funding fundamental research. Here’s a first brief peek at their recommendations for “[Revitalizing] Frontier and Multidisciplinary Research”: Spur radical innovation by reallocating three percent of all federal […]

Could An Appropriations Reorganization Help U.S. Science?


As the FY 05 appropriations process demonstrated, the current organization of congressional appropriations subcommittees (and thus, appropriations bills) is a mess that puts science agencies at a disadvantage in the competition for federal dollars. The current structure is a mish-mash of jurisdictions that forces agencies that have little or nothing to do with each other […]

Catching Up: Update on PITAC Cyber Security Efforts


This article I spotted today in Government Computer News on former Director of DHS’ National Cybersecurity Division Amit Yoran’s thoughts about DHS’ niche in federal cybersecurity efforts reminded me that I hadn’t provided an update on what I thought was a very interesting meeting of PITAC’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity R&D a week ago last Friday. […]