SSTI Digest

Calls for an end to "corporate welfare" increased this week with an unusual coalition unveiling a list of targeted programs and nine senators calling for a commission to review federal subsidies to companies.

The final appropriation for federal science and technology (FS&T) for FY 1997 is $43.4 billion, a slight increase (0.7 percent) over the FY 1996 appropriation, according to a new report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Women and minorities continue to take fewer high-level mathematics and science courses in high school; earn fewer bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in science and engineering (S&E); and remain less likely to be employed in S&E jobs than white males.

The new Guide to NIST, a one-stop information resource on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is now available. The 164-page volume describes hundreds of different research projects, grants, industry outreach programs, services and facilities. The publication updates a 1993 edition. Requests for the guide can be faxed to 301/926-1630. An electronic version will be available online later this year on the NIST home page at http://www.nist.gov

The National Governors' Association (NGA), the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Technology Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce are holding two more regional meetings to get input from state officials and others on the direction of the U.S. Innovation Partnership (USIP).

During the past decade, the European Union (EU) invested heavily in civilian R&D by building first-class laboratories and expanding higher education in science and engineering. Its efforts, according to the Data Brief for a new National Science Foundation report, Human Resources for Science and Technology: The European Region, are narrowing the lead the U.S. holds in R&D.

Department of Defense figures show there is approximately 35 percent excess capacity in its laboratory infrastructure, according to a General Accounting Office (GAO) report.

In a continuing effort to improve the services the State Science and Technology Institute provides to its users, SSTI has made changes to its World Wide Web home page and the SSTI Weekly Digest.

Ohio's Edison Technology Centers generated a direct economic impact for Ohio of more than $730 million from 1992 to 1995, according to a new study prepared by Battelle Memorial Institute for the Edison Centers. The seven Edison Centers are non-profit organizations that combine state, industry and academic resources to solve industrial problems and develop new technologies.

The first recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers were announced earlier this week. The 60 winners will receive up to $500,000 over a five year period to further their research.

Criteria used by one of the largest funders of basic research to evaluate research proposals is slated to change in 1997. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is revising the criteria used to evaluate approximately 30,000 proposals per year and is seeking comments on the proposed criteria.

A panel of external evaluators has concluded that the National Science Foundation's State/Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (S/I/UCRC) Program supports NSF's strategic goals. The panel also found that "the development of cooperative research centers involving states, industries and NSF can be an important contributing element to maintaining and developing a competitive US industry."