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Strategic Planning Document -
Environment and Natural Resources
Chapter 2. Strategic Planning and Coordination of
Environmental Research and Development
An important objective of the federal government is the establishment of
clear national goals for science and technology investments across the
government. Today's problems demand contributions
from different fields of study and a team approach from the federal
research and development (R&D) agencies as a means to provide an
interagency strategic management system to coordinate and enhance
the ability to achieve interdisciplinary solutions. President Clinton
established the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) by
executive order in November 1993.
The National Science and Technology Council
The NSTC is a standing, cabinet-level body chaired by the President and
composed of the Vice President, the Assistant to the President for
Science and Technology, the cabinet secretaries and
agency heads with responsibilities for significant science and
technology programs, and other White
House officials. The principal purposes of the NSTC are to (1) define
clear national goals for federal
science and technology investments and (2) ensure that science, space,
and technology policies and programs contribute effectively to the
national goals.
In 1994, NSTC committees identified R&D priorities, and the NSTC,
through the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of
Management and Budget, provided federal agencies with
coordinated budget guidance for R&D. This guidance articulated FY 1996
R&D priorities that were identified by the NSTC committees and was
intended to facilitate planning, coordination, and
communication among federal agencies and to direct agency programs
toward these priorities. This guidance was used by the Office of
Management and Budget to evaluate individual agency budget submissions.
The Committee on Environment and Natural Resources
In recent years, there have been a number of thoughtful criticisms of
the way the federal government has historically conducted environmental
R&D. The piecemeal, single issue by single issue, agency by
agency research programs once thought to be adequate to deal with the
environment have been widely recognized as inadequate to deal with the
complex air, land, sea, economic, and social issues
associated with regional, national, and global concerns such as ocean
transport of pollutants, atmospheric deposition, climate change and
ozone-layer depletion, biodiversity, and sustainable
development. Ensuring economic development in concert with environmental
protection makes the need for stronger integration of social, economic,
and environmental sciences critical as all
stakeholders are drawn into the process of environmental decision
making. The NSTC Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR)
was created as a new way to conduct coordinated, cost-
effective, interdisciplinary research to address the important
environmental issues of our time.
Major criticisms raised by independent evaluations of the
federal government's environmental research structure 1
- No clear leadership.
- Inadequate links between research and policy and inadequate
mechanisms for assessing the state of knowledge.
- No comprehensive national environmental research plan that looks
beyond near-term regulatory or management needs.
- Imbalance between intramural and extramural R&D.
- Lack of funding for ecological and social sciences and for finding
engineering solutions to environmental problems.
- Insufficient attention to long-term monitoring, data collection and
management, and interpretation.
The CENR provides clear leadership, through its subcommittee structure,
for strategic planning, coordination, and prioritization of research and
assessment objectives across all federal agencies. By
establishing a committee structure with science and policy cochairs,
mechanisms have been put in place to integrate the state of knowledge
regarding environmental and natural resource issues with
policy planning, and conversely, to ensure that research strategies are
policy relevant. Through this document, and the supporting subcommittee
strategic and implementation plans, the CENR has
developed a comprehensive, national plan for environmental and natural
resource research that focuses on a long-term research strategy, as well
as the near-term development of understanding to support
policy decisions. Through the planning activities of the issue and
crosscutting subcommittees, enhanced emphasis has been placed on
ecological research to (1) understand the potential
consequences of long-term environmental change and (2) to promote the
efficient use of natural resources while sustaining ecosystems for future
generations. Similarly, increased emphasis has been
placed on the integration of social sciences and assessment end points
into research planning in all of the CENR issue areas. Efforts are being
made throughout the CENR, with coordination by the Task
Group on Observations and Data Management, to increase the efficiency
with which the vast array of monitoring and other forms of data generated
within the federal system are available. This process will
help to better define where true gaps in long-term monitoring exist that
need to be filled. The CENR has begun a process to evaluate the balance
between intramural and extramural R&D in the overall
mix of federal R&D. Important roles exist for federal laboratories,
national laboratories (government owned, contractor operated),
universities, and private industry research activities. The process of
strategic planning recognizes that each of these sectors has
capabilities and resources that are integral to a balanced federal
research program and will strive over the long term to take advantage
of the diversity of strengths afforded by each.
The mission of the CENR is to develop and implement a comprehensive
strategy for environmental R&D activities across the federal government
to ensure that federal R&D efforts provide the scientific
and technical information needed by policy and decision makers. The
organizational structure of the CENR includes full-committee and
subcommittee policy vice chairs who bring high-level policy
perspectives to the CENR.
The CENR consists of seven issue subcommittees created because they
represent areas of important policy that transcend the interest of a
single agency: Global Change; Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Dynamics; Resource Use and Management; Water Resources and Coastal and
Marine Environments; Air Quality; Toxic Substances and Hazardous and
Solid Waste; and Natural Disaster Reduction.
The CENR has three crosscutting subcommittees: Risk Assessment, Social
and Economic Sciences, and Environmental Technology (a joint subcommittee
of CENR and the NSTC Committee on Civilian
and Industrial Technology). The crosscutting subcommittees focus on
themes common to the areas covered by the seven issue subcommittees and
provide an additional mechanism for interagency
coordination. Risk assessment, for example, plays an important role in
issues such as the effects of toxic substances, biodiversity, loss of
ecosystem integrity, natural disaster reduction, and effects of
global change on human health and ecosystem function. Social and
economic sciences are critical to evaluating the impacts of human
activities on local, regional, and global environments and human
responses to natural disasters and environmental change. Environmental
technologies can help achieve the goals of several of the issue
subcommittees. For example, new technologies that can provide cost-
effective remediation of hazardous waste sites are of critical interest
to the subcommittees on toxic substances, water resources, and resource
use and management. The Task Force on Observations and
Data Management coordinates requirements and capabilities in these areas
across the CENR research issues. The Ecosystem Working Group provides
a focus for ecosystem research coordination
across the CENR issue areas.
Each CENR subcommittee is charged with defining critical policy
questions or issues relevant to their issue or methodological area
(e.g., risk assessment, social and economic sciences). The scientific
knowledge and corresponding research necessary to meet those
policy challenges are then identified, and an interagency implementation
plan is developed. In order to review and guide the priority-setting
process, more than 200 individuals reviewed subcommittee strategy
documents at a national conference and many hundreds of additional reviewers
in subsequent review workshops and mail reviews. Reviewers consisted of
nonfederal scientists from academia, industry, environmental organizations,
congressional staff, and the representatives of state and local governments.
Priority Crosscutting Areas for Environmental R&D
- Ecosystem Research
- Observations and Data Management
- Human Dimensions of Environmental Change
- Environmental Technology
- Science Policy Tools: Integrated Assessments and Characterizations of Risks
The CENR subcommittees include representatives from all federal agencies
and accomplish government reinvention by providing opportunities for
researchers and managers in different agencies
to share information and coordinate research. This process, most
importantly, helps identify gaps in current research and provides
strategies for prioritizing new initiatives. In a period of stable to
declining budgets, prioritizing research is essential to eliminate
duplication and to refocus low-priority efforts. Through systematic
review of R&D in each of the policy issue areas, a balanced,
comprehensive program providing the scientific and technical basis for
policy is being achieved. The CENR has identified five underfunded
priority areas that cross all environmental R&D: (1) Ecosystem
Research, (2) Observations and Data Management, (3) Socioeconomic
Dimensions of Environmental Change, (4) Environmental Technology, and (5)
Science Policy Tools: Integrated Assessments and
Characterization of Risks. (Each of these areas are discussed in greater
detail in Chapter 4.)
Coordinating Federal Resources
Federal investments must be used wisely for the nation. The CENR
represents a new way of doing business and is an integral part of this
Administration's efforts to reinvent government. The CENR has
conducted an inventory and budget crosscut of environmental R&D programs
within the federal agencies as a means of ensuring that the research
programs maintain a balanced, fiscally responsible,
and policy-relevant focus. In FY 1995, CENR programs totaled $5.3
billion; the information gained from the first year of operation as a
virtual agency was used by all CENR subcommittees to develop
research program budgets for the President's FY 1996 budget. The outcome
of this process has been the prioritization and redirection of resources
to allow modest but targeted increases in effort in the
priority issue and crosscutting areas identified by the CENR:
- Ecosystem research--to promote efficient use of natural
resources while sustaining ecosystem integrity for future generations.
- Observations and data management--to ensure that the
necessary measurements are made efficiently and that the data are widely
available to all stakeholders in easily usable forms.
- Socioeconomic dimensions of environmental change--to
understand the underlying human influences on the environment and the
potential responses of society to change.
- Environmental technology--to protect the environment while
stimulating economic growth and capturing emerging global markets.
- Science policy tools--to provide the tools (e.g., integrated
assessment and risk models) required by policymakers for informed
decisions on complex environmental and societal issues.
In the 1996 budget process, the agencies have taken steps in focusing
their research on areas of high priority, and in coordinating their
efforts. In the CENR priority areas, agencies have either redirected
resources or augmented their budgets. Augmentations totalling
approximately $100M and redirections of approximately $100M were
distributed within the five priority areas. Further, NASA accounting
changes have resulted in additions in the generic crosscut line of $88M
in FY 1996 (MTPE launch costs).
Because of the inextricable link between energy and the environment, the
resource estimate for the Department of Energy reflects a conscious
decision to include a major portion of the Department's
energy research and development within the Committee on Environment and
Natural Resources. This large and diverse portfolio of energy R&D
programs is essential to meeting our national environmental
goals as well as addressing global environmental concerns. Similarly,
the large NASA resource estimate is dominated by the major investment in
the Earth Observing System which is a critical
element for future observation of the Earth's changing environment.
This Administration established the CENR to develop a strategic agenda
and priorities for environmental R&D across the federal agencies. The
CENR will continue to establish environmental R&D priorities across the
federal government and to facilitate the coordination of this research
across the agencies and departments. Setting these priorities will ensure
that the United States remains on the leading edge of environmental R&D
and that such R&D provides a strong scientific basis for decision
makers responsible for the protection, management, and stewardship of
environmental systems and resources.
Chapter 2 (continued)
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