The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved a bill yesterday that would increase the authorization for two key science agencies, create a new program of “Innovation Acceleration Grants” at federal agencies, create a council to oversee basic research efforts at NASA, and direct the National Academies to study “forms of risk that create barriers to innovation.” […]
Last June, CRA joined with over 300 other science and university groups in filing comments (pdf) opposing the Department of Commerce’s proposed change to so-called “deemed export” regulations that would seriously impact university research efforts. A deemed export occurs when a foreign national “uses” technology subject to export restrictions while in the United States. The […]
Sen. John Sununu (R-NH), known as one of the biggest budget hawks on the Hill (in fact, he’s the highest ranked “taxpayers’ friend” in the Senate, according to the National Taxpayers Union) has his take on the current push for competitiveness legislation in today’s Washington Times. While it’s not surprising that he sees lots of […]
The President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST) met Wednesday in Washington to hear about the state of U.S. and global science and technology, to get updates on the research initiatives under its jurisdiction, and to begin work on the committee’s new responsibility as overseers of the Networking and Information Technology R&D program. […]
Demonstrating how much work remains to be done with the House Republican leadership, the House Republican “High-tech Task Force” led by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) today introduced its “Innovation and Competitiveness Act,” which wholly ignores the central recommendation of the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative, two bi-partisan bills in the Senate, the National Academies “Gathering Storm” […]
Today President Bush announced he is planning to appoint CRA Board Chair Dan Reed, to the newly-expanded membership of the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology. Reed, who is Vice-Chancellor of IT and CIO for the University of North Carolina, and Director of the Renaissance Computing Institute, joins 13 other members named as […]
CRA affiliate organization, the Association for Computing Machinery, today released the results of its year-long, comprehensive study on the globalization and offshoring of software. The study contains six key findings: Globalization of, and offshoring within, the software industry are deeply connected and both will continue to grow. Key enablers of this growth are information technology […]
While there has been some progress in straightening out the mess that is the visa process post-9/11, as this Washington Post story indicates, the situation is still pretty bad for those who have research interests in high-tech areas. A decision two weeks ago by a U.S. consulate in India to refuse a visa to a […]
Got a “pre-brief” this afternoon from the White House. We’ll like it. It’ll be webcast live. We’ll have CRA’s reaction here, right after the speech. Update (1/31/06 9:20 pm) — Here’s the key passage: And to keep America competitive, one commitment is necessary above all: We must continue to lead the world in human talent […]
Ok, so that’s about the most played-out cliche in politics, but it’s hard to come up with another phrase that encapsulates how pervasive the competitiveness meme has become in science policy circles — and more encouragingly, in the words of administration and congressional policymakers — over the last year. Also, apologies for going sort of […]
