Abstract
How does the research performed by a government mission agency contribute to useable technologies for its constituents? Is it possible to incorporate science policy mechanisms for increasing benefits to users in the decision process? The United States National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) promises research directed towards industrial application. This paper considers the processes that produce science and technology at NIST. The institute’s policies for science provide robust examples for how effective science policies can contribute to the emergence of useful technologies. To progress towards technologies that can be years away, the agency uses several means for integrating the needs of eventual information users into the prioritization process. To accomplish this, NIST units, such as the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory, incorporate mechanisms for considering user need and project impact into different stages of its scientific decision processes. This, and other specific strategies that the agency utilizes for connecting the supply of science to information demand, provide lessons for generating useable science.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/budget/2009budgetpiechart.htm last accessed on 7/20/09.
How do you make decisions about what’s the best stuff to do? How do you know when to break away from serving an existing need so that you can use the same resources—people and dollars—to tackle new needs for the next generation of technology? And that’s always a push and a pull here. But, given the resources, we have to make decisions when to move on (Heyman).
These questions are absolutely necessary for figuring out what kind of science we should be doing, as a filter for projects that shouldn’t go forward. All activities in the lab go through this part of the process. These also serve as a mental guide to our staff. It helps them in their conceptualization of NIST goals, and relation of that to their own work (May).
NIST has hosted workshops with representatives of the fire service, industry, and other laboratories to establish priorities for fire service research. Published results of these workshops have helped set the current research agenda for both NIST and USFA [U.S. Fire Association] (Bement 2003).
What we’re trying to do to develop this common understanding. We try to describe the details of our mission in a one-page document. We have a lot of discussions across the laboratory that reach all the way down to the staff level. How do things fit?(Kayser).
References
Bement Jr., Arden L. 2003. Prepared statement of Dr. Arden L. Bement, Jr. Director, National Institute of Standards. Hearing on The Fire Act: Needs of the fire service. Federal News Service, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Branscomb, L.M., and James H. Keller. 1998a. Towards a research and innovation policy. In Investing in innovation: Creating a research and innovation policy that works, eds. Louis M. Branscomb, and James H. Keller, 462–496. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Branscomb, Louis M., and James H. Keller. 1998b. Challenges to technology policy in a changing world economy. In Investing in innovation: Creating a research and innovation policy that works, eds. Louis M. Branscomb, and James H. Keller, 3–39. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Brown, George. 1992. Guest comment: The objectivity crisis. American Journal of Physics 60: 779–781.
Bush, Vannever. 1945. Science: The endless frontier. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Cash, David W., and William Clark. 2001. From science to policy: Assessing the assessment process. Cambridge: John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Cellucci, Tom. 2004. Statement of Dr. Tom Cellucci, President and Chief Operator Officer, Zyvex. corp. (trans: U.S. Congress, ed.). Committee on House Science, Subcommittee on Environment, Technology, and Standards. Washington D.C.: Federal Document Clearing House.
Celotta, Robert. 2007. Personal interview with Robert Celotta, Director, NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Gaithersburg.
Cundiff, Steven. 2007. Personal interview with Steven Cundiff, NIST Division Chief, Quantum Physics Division, on 5/14/07, Boulder.
Dilling, Lisa. 2007. Towards science in support of decision making: Characterizing the supply of carbon cycle science. Environmental Science & Policy 10: 48–61.
Epstein, Steven. 1996. Impure science: Aids, activism, and the politics of knowledge. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Fountain, Jane E. 1998. Social capital: A key enabler of innovation. In Investing in innovation: Creating a research and innovation policy that works, eds. Louis M. Branscomb, and James H. Keller, 174–193. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Friend, Daniel. G. 2007. Personal interview with Daniel Friend, Chief, NIST Physical and Chemical Properties Division, 05/22/07, Boulder.
Funtowicz, Silvio O., and Jerome R. Ravetz. 1993. Science for the post-normal age. Futures 25: 735–755.
Gibbons, Michael. 1999. Science’s new social contract with society. Nature 402: C81–C84.
Gibbons, Michael, Camille Limoges, Helga Nowotny, Schwartzman Simon, Scott Peter, and Trow Martin. 1994. The new production of knowledge: The dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. London: SAGE Publications.
Greenberg, Daniel S. 2001. Science, money, and politics: Political triumph and ethical erosion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 528 pp.
Grubbe, Deborah L. 2004. Statement of Deborah L. Grubbe, P.E. Corporate Director—safety and health, dupont. (trans: U.S. Congress, ed.) Committee on House Science, Subcommittee on Environment, Technology, and Standards. Washington D.C.: Federal Document Clearing House.
Herrick, Charles. 2000. Predictive modeling of acid rain: Obstacles to generating useful information. In Prediction: Science, decision making, and the future of nature, eds. Roger A. Pielke, Daniel Sarewitz Jr., and Radford Byerly Jr., 251–269. Washington D.C.: Island Press.
Heyman, Matthew. 2007. Personal interview with Matthew Heyman, NIST Chief of Staff, on 6/7/07, Gaithersburg.
Jeffrey, William. 2007. Personal interview with William Jeffrey, NIST Director, on 6/07/07, Gaithersburg.
Kayser, Richard F. 2007a. MSEL Program/project evaluation process. Presentation, May 19, 2007.
Kayser, Richard F. 2007b. Personal interview with Richard Kayser, Director, NIST Material Science and Engineering Laboratory, on 6/07/07, Gaithersburg.
Kitcher, Philip. 2001. Science, truth, and democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lerner, Barron H. 2001. The breast cancer wars: Hope, fear, and the pursuit of a cure in the twentieth-century America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Logar, Nathaniel J., and Richard Conant. 2007. Reconciling the supply and demand for carbon cycle science in the U.S. agricultural sector. Environmental Science & Policy 10: 75–84.
May, Willie. 2007. Personal interview with Dr. Willie May, Lab Director, Chemical Sciences and Technology Laboratory, NIST. Recipient, N. Logar (6/19/07).
McNie, Elizabeth. 2008. Co-producing useful climate science for policy: Lessons from the RISA program. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Morgen, Sandra. 2002. Into our own hands: The women’s health movement in the United States, 1969–1990. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
National Institute of Standards & Technology. 2006. An assessment of the United States measurement system: Addressing measurement barriers to accelerate innovation. Gaithersburg: NIST.
National Institute of Standards and Technology. 2008. Three-year programmatic plan for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce, Fiscal years 2009–2011. Gaithersburg: NIST.
National Research Council (NRC). 2006a. Rising above the gathering storm: Energizing and employing America for a brighter economic future. Washington D.C.: National Academies Press.
National Research Council (NRC). 2006b. An assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology measurement and standards laboratories: Fiscal years 2005–2006. Washington D.C.: National Academies Press.
National Science Foundation (NSF). 2009. Grant proposal guide. Washington D.C.: National Science Foundation. 70 pp.
Pielke Jr., Roger A. 1995. Usable information for policy: An appraisal of the U.S. global change research program. Policy Sciences 38: 39–77.
Pielke Jr., Roger A., and Radford Byerly Jr. 1998. Beyond basic and applied. Physics Today 51: 42–46.
Pielke Jr., Roger A. and Daniel Sarewitz. 2003. Wanted: Scientific leadership on climate change. Issues in Science and Technology Winter 2003, 27–30.
Rochford, Kent. 2007. Personal interview with Kent Rochford, Chief, NIST Optoelectronics Division, 02/21/07, Boulder.
Rosenberg, Charles E. 1997. No other gods: On science and American social thought. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Rubin, Herbert J., and Irene S. Rubin. 1995. Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. London: SAGE Publications.
Sarewitz, Daniel, and Roger A. Pielke Jr. 2007. The neglected heart of science policy: Reconciling supply of and demand for science. Environmental Science & Policy 10: 5–16.
Shapley, Deborah, and Rustum Roy. 1985. Lost at the frontier: U.S. science and technology policy adrift. Philadelphia: ISI Press.
Silberglitt, Richard, and Lance Sherry. 2002. A decision framework for prioritizing industrial materials research and development. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation.
Silberglitt, Richard, Lance Sherry, Carolyn Wong, Michael Tseng, Emile Ettedgui, Aaron Watts, and Geoffrey Stothard. 2004. Portfolio analysis and management for naval research and development. Santa Monica: RAND.
Stokes, Donald E. 1997. Pasteur’s quadrant: Basic science and technological innovation. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
Tassey, Gregory 2007. Interview with Gregory Tassey, NIST Chief Economist, 06/06/2007.
Thurgood, Lori, Mary J. Golladay, and Susan T. Hill. 2006. U.S. doctorates in the 20th century. Washington D.C.: NSF Division of Science Resources Statistics.
USHCS. 2005. Fiscal 2005 Budget: National Institute of Standards and Technology in house committee on science, subcommittee on environment, technology, and standards. Washington, D.C.: Federal Document Clearing House.
Wagle, Udaya. 2000. The policy science of democracy: The issues of methodology and citizen participation. Policy Sciences 33: 207–223.
Weinberg, Alvin W. 1971. The axiology of science. American Scientist 58: 612–617.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by grant No. SES 0345604 from the Decision Making Under Uncertainty initiative at the National Science Foundation for Science Policy and Assessment Research on Climate. The author would like to thank Roger A. Pielke Jr., Radford Byerly Jr., and Lisa Dilling for valuable input
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Logar, N. Towards a Culture of Application: Science and Decision Making at the National Institute of Standards & Technology. Minerva 47, 345–366 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-009-9137-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-009-9137-z