The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program Looking Back, Moving Forward (2007) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-6
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To address this task, the National Research Council's MRSEC Impact Assessment Committee -- comprising representatives of universities both with and without Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs) , industry, and national laboratories -- employed four in-person meetings, four whole-committee teleconferences, extensive questionnaires to and telephone interviews with National Science Foundation (NSF)
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The intense competition for them within the community indicates a strong perceived value. These motivations include: The ability to pursue interdisciplinary, collaborative research; • The resources to provide an interdisciplinary training experience for the • future scientific and technical workforce from undergraduate to postdoc toral researchers; Block funding at levels that enable more rapid response to new ideas, and • that support higher-risk projects, than is possible with single-investigator grants; The leverage and motivation MRSECs provide in producing increased • institutional, local, and/or state support for materials research; The perceived distinction that the presence of a MRSEC gives to the ma • terials research enterprise of an institution, thus attracting more quality students and junior faculty; and The infrastructure that MRSECs can provide to organize and manage • facilities and educational and industrial outreach.
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Resources for basic research, especially in materials research, have not kept pace with overall economic growth in the past decade. Expectations for the range and extent of impacts enabled by NSF's programs have also changed.
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The MRSEC program is thus missing a clear opportunity to leverage resources and thereby strengthen the materials research enterprise as a whole. The opportunity to leverage the combined resources of the MRSEC program is significant.
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Building the integrated capabilities of materials research centers into a cooperating network would strengthen materials science and engineering in the United States as a discipline and as a factor in U.S. competitiveness.
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