As you may be aware the National Academies released its "Assessment of Department of Defense Basic Research." Undertaken at the behest of Congress this report had some interesting conclusions. First among them was Finding 1:
Department of Defense basic research funds under 6.1 have not been directed in significant amounts to support projects typical of 6.2 or 6.3 funding.
This finding comes in contrast to comments many CNSR members have been recieving from scientists and engineers at their universities and within their associations.
Also of interest was Finding 8:
A recent trend in basic research emphasis within the Department of Defense has led to a reduced effort in unfettered exploration, which historically has been a critical enabler of the most important reakthroughs in military capabilities.This bares out some of the concerns that our members have had that DoD is focusing too much on short term research and not focusing on long-term high-payoff science. Posted by TomJones at January 12, 2005 03:56 PM | TrackBack