SCIENCE POLICY PRIORITIES: Academies map science, technology terrain for the 21st century

Hoping to play a more dominant role in science, technology, and public policy, three of the country's most prestigious scientific, engineering, and medical bodies last week sent policymakers six guides that outline how the U.S. should prepare for the next century. In a policy statement that accompanied the documents, the heads of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) outlined four issues they declared to be "important to the science and engineering enterprise" and the national good. The four issues are science, math, and technology education; declines in research funding; underutilization of the social and behavioral sciences; and the uncontrolled growth of health care spending. The academy heads also say the government should act to raise, not decrease, federal science and engineering budgets, even as Congress and the Administration work to balance the federal budget by 2002. The guides, each no more than ...