GAO Study of International S&T Agreements Available

A recent report by the General Accounting Office (GAO), Federal Research: Information on International Science and Technology Agreements (GAO/RCED-99-108), identifies: 1) the number of international S&T agreements active during fiscal year 1997; and, 2) the number of these agreements that resulted in research projects or other activities.

GAO found that in FY 1997, the seven agencies it reviewed participated in 575 international science and technology agreements with 57 countries, 8 international organizations, and 10 groups or organizations and/or countries. More than 90% of the international S&T agreements resulted in research projects or other research-related activities such as consultations among scientists and exchanges of data and personnel.

The distribution of agreements by agency was:

Agency Total DOE 257 NASA 127 NIST 56 NIH 44 State 33 NOAA 32 NSF 26 Total 575

Bilateral agreements with Japan, Russia and China accounted for 34 percent of the 435 total bilateral agreements. The 140 agreements comprising the balance of the study were multilateral agreements, three-fourths of which were for the International Energy Agency and the European Space Agency.

The report found that while the government maintains these agreements to support and encourage international cooperation in science and technology, the federal government has no system in place to track the resources expended as a result of these agreements.

Copies of Federal Research: Information on International Science and Technology Agreements can be obtained from http://www.gao.gov