|
Items in cart [1] |
Questions? Call 888-624-8373 |
| Copyright © 2009. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Terms of Use and Privacy Statement |
Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 22
Processes for Coordination and Review
Are Current Processes of Coordination and Review Adequate?
A particular strength of the USGCRP is the high degree of col-
laboration among the major research agencies that fund and carry out re-
search in the biological and earth sciences, realized organizationally through
the CEES. These efforts have developed a working, multi-agency process
whereby plans for the USGCRP are coordinated through the CEES Work-
ing Group on Global Change and its various Disk Groups. The process
can focus joint resources on areas of research that are of broad national
and international concern. The CEES planning process offers as well an
additional mechanism to preserve program focus, through procedures of
the CEES that now subject proposed USGCRP initiatives of individual
agencies to interagency scrutiny.
The CEES interagency approach is a useful mechanism which, if ef-
fectively coupled with ongoing, external review processes, has the potential
to provide the structure for an exceptionally strong program of research.
Three particular needs are outlined below.
CONTINUED INVOLVEMENT OF THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
IN PROGRAM PLANNING AND REVIE:VV
In the formative stages of the USGCRP, independent advice on the
overall scientific strategy and approach of the program was provided
22
OCR for page 23
23
through a close working relationship with the NRC's Committee on Global
Change. As the USGCRP enters its implementation phase, the activities
of the CGC and other advisory mechanisms will have to shift emphasis to
include more directed activities of periodic program review and reevalua-
tion.
The panel sees a need as well for extramural advisory panels to guide
and review programs within each of the federal agencies that contribute to
the focused program. Such panels can provide an effective mechanism for
maintaining the elements of balance discussed above, to ensure program
flexibility, and to preserve the needed program focus. Some but not all
agencies with focused program elements now use panels of this sort.
MECHANISMS FOR SCIENTIFIC ASSESSMENT
AND THE DELIVERY OF POLICY ADVICE
The USGCRP is designed to establish the scientific basis for national
and international policymaking with the goal of providing an objective foun-
dation of fact for rational policy debate and effective action. Specifically,
the program promises to deliver (1) timely information to Congress, the
Executive Branch, and others; (2) periodic assessments of scientific under-
standing in critical areas of global change; and (3) seasonal, interannual,
and ultimately interdecadal projections of selected climate impacts.
The mechanisms that will be needed to achieve these goals, involving
assimilation of results including those of modeling and processes of respon-
sible review and consensus, are not specified in plans for the USGCRP, but
they will soon need to be. Nor is it clear which agency, or agencies, will take
the lead in performing these important roles. The degree to which reliable
projections can realistically be expected, the specifications of well-reasoned
limits on their accuracy and the process through which projections are to
be provided and delivered are as yet undefined. The panel feels that filling
this void must be a priority element of subsequent budgets for the program.
INTERACTION AMONG PARTICIPATING AGENCIES
The USGCRP has developed on the basis of extraordinary cooperation
and interaction among many federal agencies through the CEES. Intera-
gency agreement on program goals, the ordering of scientific priorities of
research tasks within them, and agreements on an overall, multi-agengy
program budget reflect what may be an unprecedented achievement in
interagency coordination.
While this exemplary level of coordination applies to the program as
a whole, it is not as evident in the selection of agency initiatives that are
proposed to achieve progress in the various science priorities. Lacking
OCR for page 24
24
in some cases, in the view of the panel, is evidence of what might be
called "zero-based" program- definition, i.e., interagency agreement for
each science priority on what is needed to answer the highest priority
research questions, whether or not the needed initiatives now exist within
a given agency. Several perceived shortcomings are noted in AppendLx B.
The need for increased interagency interaction at this level applies to most
if not all of the identified science priorities.
Improved definitions can be achieved in future years through more
specific program recommendations on the part of the CGC and through
implementation of them on the part of interagency Disk Groups that have
now been established by the CEES.
PRINCIPAL RECOMMENDATIONS
The panel believes that the multi-agency process established through
the CEES provides the mechanism for a coordinated, effective program.
However, mechanisms need to be strengthened to involve the extramural
scientific community in the review of the USGCRP plans, both at the levels
of both the overall program and the individual participating agencies. In
addition, mechanisms need to be developed for evaluating the successes
of the program, for delivering results to policymakers, and for improving
interaction among the participating agencies on specific projects included
within the USGCRP.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
program focus
