Capitalizing on New Needs and New Opportunities Government-Industry Partnerships in Biotechnology and Information Technologies (2001) / Chapter Skim
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III. Findings and Recommendations
III. Findings and Recommendations
Pages 51-70
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2This software requires 10,000 lines of code instead of the million lines required by traditional flight control software. The aircraft performed better in test flights, because the neural network program was more responsive to changes (such as loss of aircraft control surfaces)
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Bioinformatics is a key example of a highly multidisciplinary field requiring workers with interdisciplinary training.5 Biotechnology R&D and information technology R&D each provide tools and models useful for the other. Interdependencies also exist among chemistry, physics, and structural biology, and among mathematics, computer engineering, and genomics.
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From page 55... ...
While projects led by individual investigators remain vital to general scientific and engineering advancement, solving complex problems in new areas such as bioinformatics and next-generation computing requires larger, multidisciplinary collaborations among scientists and engineering researchers. Both government agencies and industry groups can help overcome these institutional problems by funding multidisciplinary research projects focused on important complex problems.
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14See the presentation by Gordon Moore in the Proceedings section for a nuanced view of the federal role in the development of the semiconductor industry. 15Moore, op.
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. Reflecting the semiconductor industry's dependence on research and its special needs, the federal research effort has been complemented by private support, such as the industry-created Semiconductor Research Corporation,l7 and later through the SEMATECH Consortium the highly regarded federal-industry partnership.
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From page 58... ...
Federal patent policy also has a significant impact on these fields. Covenng, as it does, areas as diverse as biotechnology and ecommerce, current federal patent policy is sometimes a source of uncertainty and, thus, could prove to be an obstacle to innovation.22 The federal government could help further stimulate innovation by clarifying patent rules (e.g., regarding biotechnology research tools)
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For a broader analysis of the venture capital industry, see Paul Gompers and Joshua Lerner, The Venture Capital Cycle. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000.
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The future in high performance computing may belong to machines that are based on standard microprocessors rather than expensive specialty chips and architectures. However, harnessing the computing power of large numbers of microprocessors creates special technical problems.
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Priority Setting or Random Disinvestment? For the most part, the shifts in federal research spending shown in Figure 1 have not been the result of a conscious national debate on priorities.34 The R&D budgets of most agencies were cut in real terms in the 1993-1997 period in response to 30See Michael McGeary, "Recent Trends in Federal Funding of Research and Development Related to Health and Information Technology," in this volume.
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From page 63... ...
As they provided the majority of support for certain disciplines electrical, mechanical, and materials engineering and computer science in the case of DOD, and physics in the case of DOE changes in their pnonty-setting contributed to a national-level shift in federal funding from the physical sciences and engineering to the life sciences and computer science. Indeed, shifts in agency disbursement priorities were not the result of considered government-wide reviews, either by the Executive Branch or by Congress.36 Declining support for the physical sciences and fundamental engineering worries many observers, including many in biomedicine who know how important chemistry, physics, and mathematics have been to recent advances in molecular biology and genom~cs.37 Central advances in health and communications necessarily depend on more than increased funding for biomedical research and computer science in themselves.
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As a first step, the Steering Committee strongly recommends that NIH and other federal agencies work with industry and university experts to identify what technical steps are needed to ensure that the United States can fully exploit the nation's investment in the development of genomic information. For example, what kind of computing power, what advances in software, what new analytical tools (such as DNA-analyzing computing chips)
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From page 65... ...
The semiconductor industry has maintained, and even accelerated Moore's Law.39 This has led to a proliferation of computing power throughout the economy, resulting in increased productivity and economic growth.40 To maintain Moore's Law, significant increases in funding for physical sciences and engineering including material sciences, chemistry, physics, and electrical engineenngare needed to build greater understanding of properties of nanostructures underpinning tomorrow's information industries as well to capitalize on advances in biotechnology.41 C Address unresolved questions about research partnerships.
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44In this volume, see Jane Alexander ``siofutures for Multiple Missions,, and Paul Horn ``Meeting Needs: Realizing the Opportunities.~, 45The Berkeley School of Public Health undertook an extensive reorganization in the fall of 1999 in order to promote these kinds of activities, including the launch a $500 million research initiative linking biological and physical sciences and engineering to spur biomedical advances. uc Berkeley plans to involve as many as 400 researchers in fields as diverse as public health, psychology, physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and computer science in multidisciplinary research Also involved in this effort are scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
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From page 67... ...
Federal agencies should be encouraged to work with industry associations and the scientific and engineering communities to develop technology roadmaps in important interdisciplinary fields such as genomics and bioinformatics, nanotechnology, and advanced information technology, including optoelectronics. The country needs to know what major technical barriers exist and what types of research are thus needed in order to ensure continued progress, and what investments in scientific and engineering research will be required.46 II.
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Multidisciplinary research might benefit from improved patenting rules and policies as to what constitutes an allowable patent. 50The FY 2002 President's Budget request provides funds to the NIH to make high-end instrumentation available to a broad community of basic and clinical scientists, and requests $40.2 million for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
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From page 69... ...
Congress and the Executive Branch also may wish to participate actively in the NRC review of the impact of recent patent decisions (PTO decisions and court decisions) on innovation in both biotechnology and information technology.53 Uncertainty concerning the scope of new patents in areas such as biotechnology research tools, as well as risks perceived as arising from the proprietary nature of such patents could become deterrents to future innovation in these industries.54 5icassman, op.
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The Committee believes that, in addition to changes in the organization of research, the nation must provide greater support for research across a broad portfolio of fields and disciplines in order to capitalize effectively on existing research investments and to ensure continued benefits for future generations.
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