impeded the flow of a superior medical treatment to the market, to the detriment of public health.³⁴

Possible options for federal action include the following:

• Evaluate and amend the Bayh–Dole Act to promote collaborations between university technology-transfer offices, local community colleges, local economic-development planning agencies, federal laboratories, select managers of venture funds, and industry leaders. This would respond to the increasing pressure on university technology-transfer specialists to become stewards of their regional economic development. Cooperative Economic Development Agreements (CEDAs) can accomplish this goal.³⁵

Over the years, a number of national advisory bodies have been set up to develop policy ideas and recommendations affecting specific industries. These bodies have sometimes taken on science and engineering issues as a central part of their work. The National Advisory Committee on Semiconductors, which operated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is one example. A more recent example is the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry.³⁶ A followup effort, the National Aerospace Initiative, has sought to involve the relevant agencies in the development of technology roadmaps for the industry.³⁷

The President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, which was disbanded in June 2005, issued a final report recommending that federal agencies change the way they fund computational science and calling on the National Academies to lead a roadmapping effort.³⁸ Several years ago, an advisory committee to NSF recommended the launch of an effort to boost cyberinfrastructure for research enabled by information technology.³⁹