Science advice to governments: diverse systems, common challenges

This briefing paper formed the basis of discussions at the 'Science Advice to Governments' summit, which took place in Auckland, New Zealand from 28-29 August 2014, and was attended by science advisors and policymakers from 48 countries

Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate: Developing Technology to Protect America

In response to a congressional mandate and in consultation with Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), the National Academy conducted a review of S&T's effectiveness and efficiency in addressing homeland security needs. This review included a particular focus that identified any unnecessary duplication of effort, and opportunity costs arising from an emphasis on homeland security-related research. Under the direction of the National Academy Panel, the study team reviewed a wide variety of documents related to S&T and homeland security-related research in general. The team also conducted interviews with more than 200 individuals, including S&T officials and staff, officials from other DHS component agencies, other federal agencies engaged in homeland security-related research, and experts from outside government in science policy, homeland security-related research and other scientific fields.Key FindingsThe results of this effort indicated that S&T faces a significant challenge in marshaling the resources of multiple federal agencies to work together to develop a homeland security-related strategic plan for all agencies. Yet the importance of this role should not be underestimated. The very process of working across agencies to develop and align the federal homeland security research enterprise around a forward-focused plan is critical to ensuring that future efforts support a common vision and goals, and that the metrics by which to measure national progress, and make changes as needed, are in place

Water Implications of Biofuels Production in the United States

Examines the potential impacts of continued ethanol production on water quality and supply, including increased pressure on local aquifers, increased levels of nitrogen in groundwater, and runoff pollution in streams and rivers

Solar-terrestrial data access distribution and archiving

It is recommended that a central data catalog and data access network (CDC/DAN) for solar-terrestrial research be established, initially as a NASA pilot program. The system is envisioned to be flexible and to evolve as funds permit, starting from a catalog to an access network for high-resolution data. The report describes the various functional requirements for the CDC/DAN, but does not specify the hardware and software architectures as these are constantly evolving. The importance of a steering committee, working with the CDC/DAN organization, to provide scientific guidelines for the data catalog and for data storage, access, and distribution is also stressed

A quantitative perspective on ethics in large team science

The gradual crowding out of singleton and small team science by large team endeavors is challenging key features of research culture. It is therefore important for the future of scientific practice to reflect upon the individual scientist's ethical responsibilities within teams. To facilitate this reflection we show labor force trends in the US revealing a skewed growth in academic ranks and increased levels of competition for promotion within the system; we analyze teaming trends across disciplines and national borders demonstrating why it is becoming difficult to distribute credit and to avoid conflicts of interest; and we use more than a century of Nobel prize data to show how science is outgrowing its old institutions of singleton awards. Of particular concern within the large team environment is the weakening of the mentor-mentee relation, which undermines the cultivation of virtue ethics across scientific generations. These trends and emerging organizational complexities call for a universal set of behavioral norms that transcend team heterogeneity and hierarchy. To this end, our expository analysis provides a survey of ethical issues in team settings to inform science ethics education and science policy.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Keywords: team ethics; team management; team evaluation; science of scienc

Generic Ethics Principles in Social Science Research

The written output of a series of three symposia held in the spring of 2013 on the topic of Generic Ethics Principles in Social Science Research. The format for each symposium was the same: a main speaker introduced a paper that had been circulated in advance and this was followed by two formal discussants and then participation from the floor. Discussion in groups took place in the afternoon and there was then a brief plenary session. The stimulus paper from each event is reproduced in this publication along with papers from discussants and a summary of each discussion

Report of the committee on a commercially developed space facility

Major facilities that could support significant microgravity research and applications activity are discussed. The ground-based facilities include drop towers, aircraft flying parabolic trajectories, and sounding rockets. Facilities that are intrinsically tied to the Space Shuttle range from Get-Away-Special canisters to Spacelab long modules. There are also orbital facilities which include recoverable capsules launched on expendable launch vehicles, free-flying spacecraft, and space stations. Some of these existing, planned, and proposed facilities are non-U.S. in origin, but potentially available to U.S. investigators. In addition, some are governmentally developed and operated whereas others are planned to be privately developed and/or operated. Tables are provided to show the facility, developer, duration, estimated gravity level, crew interaction, flight frequency, year available, power to payload, payload volume, and maximum payload mass. The potential of direct and indirect benefits of manufacturing in space are presented

Designing Institutional Infrastructure for E-Science

A new generation of information and communication infrastructures, including advanced Internet computing and Grid technologies, promises more direct and shared access to more widely distributed computing resources than was previously possible. Scientific and technological collaboration, consequently, is more and more dependent upon access to, and sharing of digital research data. Thus, the U.S. NSF Directorate committed in 2005 to a major research funding initiative, “Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery”. These investments are aimed at enhancement of computer and network technologies, and the training of researchers. Animated by much the same view, the UK e-Science Core Programme has preceded the NSF effort in funding development of an array of open standard middleware platforms, intended to support Grid enabled science and engineering research. This proceeds from the sceptical view that engineering breakthroughs alone will not be enough to achieve the outcomes envisaged. Success in realizing the potential of e-Science—through the collaborative activities supported by the "cyberinfrastructure," if it is to be achieved, will be the result of a nexus of interrelated social, legal, and technical transformations.e-science, cyberinfrastructure, information sharing, research