NOV 22 2000
MEMORANDUM FOR Board on Assessment of NTST Programs and its Panels
From: Raymond G.Kammer Director
Subject: Charge to the National Research Council Board on Assessment of NIST Programs for the FY2001 Evaluation
We at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are extremely grateful to the members of the Board on Assessment and its panels for the time, effort, and expertise that you devote to evaluating the quality of NIST laboratory programs. Your findings, communicated through annual reports and open meetings, help NIST maintain a top-quality scientific government agency serving the measurement needs of the nation. NIST highly values your hard work and insights in assessing our laboratory programs and we look forward to working with you in FY2001.
For this year’s assessment, I ask that you expand your focus to include issues related to the relevance and impact of NIST laboratory programs to our customers and stakeholders. The needs for metrology support are enormous in a global economy driven by advances in technology. NIST must continually strive to optimally align its limited resources to the needs of our customers and stakeholders, maximizing the impact of NIST laboratory programs. We ask your assistance in evaluating both the technical merit and the relevance and impact of NIST laboratory programs.
With its mix of experts from industry, academia, and government agencies, the Board is well-positioned to help NIST evaluate the technical merit of our laboratory programs, and also to help us determine how well our programs are aligned with the needs of our customers and stakeholders. Your findings are valued not only by NIST, but also by Congress and the Administration as they strive to ensure optimal return on the investment of resources by the American people. The Board’s reports, based on independent and expert peer review, are an important part of NIST’s performance reporting to Congress in compliance with the Government Performance and Results Act.
The core mission of the NIST Measurement and Standards Laboratories is to strengthen the U.S. economy and improve the quality of life by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements, and standards. NIST metrology underpins continued development of new services and products, fosters increased productivity, enables new scientific advances, and
helps bridge the gap between fundamental discoveries and new applications. NIST also pursues mission-oriented research to anticipate the development of new metrology and standards for future advances.
In its FY2001 report, I ask the Board on Assessment to assess the quality of the Measurement and Standards Laboratories with a focus on:
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the technical merit of the laboratory programs relative to the state-of-the-art worldwide;
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the effectiveness with which the laboratory programs are carried out and the results disseminated to their customers;
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the relevance of the laboratory programs to the needs of their customers;
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insofar as they affect the quality of the technical programs, the adequacy of the laboratories’ facilities, equipment, and human resources.
NIST expects that future technology advances will become more interdisciplinary, including such emerging fields as post-silicon computing, nanotechnology, and biomedical research. We thank the Board for their insight in establishing a crosscutting panel to assess NIST’s microelectronics program for FY2001. We look forward to learning the results of this first cross-cutting review as a possible model for future evaluations of NIST interdisciplinary programs.
Thank you again for contributing your time and expertise to assess the quality and relevance of NIST laboratory programs. Your expert, objective appraisal is crucial to helping NIST continuously improve its programs and effectiveness.