Executive Office of the President President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

148 Pages·2010·1.85 MB·English

REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT
AND CONGRESS
DESIGNING A DIGITAL FUTURE:
FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT IN
NETWORKING AND INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
Executive Office of the President
President’s Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology
DECEMBER 2010

REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT
AND CONGRESS
DESIGNING A DIGITAL FUTURE:
FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT IN
NETWORKING AND INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
Executive Office of the President
President’s Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology
DECEMBER 2010

About the President’s Council of
Advisors on Science and Technology
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is an advisory group of the
nation’s leading scientists and engineers, appointed by the President to augment the science and tech-
nology advice available to him from inside the White House and from cabinet departments and other
Federal agencies. PCAST is consulted about and provides analyses and recommendations concerning
a wide range of issues where understandings from the domains of science, technology, and innovation
may bear on the policy choices before the President. PCAST is administered by the White House Office
of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
For more information about PCAST, see http://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/pcast
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The President’s Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology
Co-Chairs
John P. Holdren Eric Lander Harold Varmus*
Assistant to the President President, Broad Institute of President, Memorial Sloan-
forScience and Technology Harvard and MIT Kettering Cancer Center
Director, Office of Science and
Technology Policy
Members
Rosina Bierbaum Chad Mirkin
Dean, School of Natural Resources and Rathmann Professor, Chemistry, Materials
Environment Science and Engineering, Chemical and
University of Michigan Biological Engineering and Medicine
Director, International Institute of
Christine Cassel
Nanotechnology
President and CEO, American Board of Internal
Northwestern University
Medicine
Mario Molina
Christopher Chyba
Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Professor, Astrophysical Sciences and
University of California, San Diego
International Affairs
Professor, Center for Atmospheric Sciences
Director, Program on Science and Global Security
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Princeton University
Director, Mario Molina Center for Energy and
S. James Gates, Jr. Environment, Mexico City
John S. Toll Professor of Physics
Ernest J. Moniz
Director, Center for String and Particle Theory
Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and
University of Maryland
Engineering Systems
Shirley Ann Jackson Director, MIT’s Energy Initiative
President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Richard C. Levin Craig Mundie
President Chief Research and Strategy Officer
Yale University Microsoft Corporation
* Dr. Varmus resigned from PCAST on July 9, 2010 and subsequently became Director of the National
Cancer Institute (NCI).
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DESIGNING A DIGITAL FUTURE: FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN
NETWORKING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Ed Penhoet Daniel Schrag
Director, Alta Partners Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology
Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry Professor, Environmental Science and
and of Public Health Engineering
University of California, Berkeley Director, Harvard University-wide Center for
Environment
William Press
Harvard University
Raymer Professor in Computer Science and
Integrative Biology David E. Shaw
University of Texas at Austin Chief Scientist, D.E. Shaw Research
Senior Research Fellow, Center for
Maxine Savitz
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Vice President
Columbia University
National Academy of Engineering
Ahmed Zewail
Barbara Schaal
Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Chilton Professor of Biology
Director, Physical Biology Center
Washington University
California Institute of Technology
Vice President, National Academy of Sciences
Eric Schmidt
Chairman and CEO
Google, Inc.
Staff
Deborah Stine Mary Maxon Gera Jochum
Executive Director Deputy Executive Director Policy Analyst
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EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF ADVISORS ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20502
President Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, DC 20502
Dear Mr. President,
We are pleased to send you this report, Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development
in Networking and Information Technology, prepared by your President’s Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology (PCAST) acting in its role as the President’s Innovation and Technology Advisory Council (PITAC).
This report fulfills PCAST’s responsibilities under Executive Order 13539 and the High-Performance Computing
Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-194) as amended by the Next Generation Internet Research Act of 1998 (Public Law
105-305) and by the America COMPETES Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-69).
The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program is the primary
mechanism by which the Federal government coordinates its unclassified networking and information technol-
ogy (NIT) research and development (R&D) investments. Fourteen Federal agencies, including all of the large
science and technology agencies, are formal members of the NITRD Program, with many other Federal entities
participating in NITRD activities. The program helps ensure that the Nation effectively leverages its strengths,
avoids duplication, and increases interoperability in such critical areas as supercomputing, high-speed network-
ing, cybersecurity, software engineering, and information management.
To provide a solid scientific basis for its assessment of NITRD, PCAST appointed an expert 14-member Working
Group, which consulted with more than 50 individuals, including government officials, industry representatives,
and experts from academia.
PCAST finds that NITRD is well coordinated and that the U.S. computing research community, coupled with a
vibrant NIT industry, has made seminal discoveries and advanced new technologies that are helping to meet
many societal challenges. Importantly, however, PCAST also finds that a substantial fraction of the NITRD
multi-agency spending summary represents spending that supports R&D in other fields, rather than spend-
ing on R&D in the field of NIT itself. As a result, the Nation is actually investing far less in NIT R&D than the $4
billion-plus indicated in the Federal budget. To achieve America’s priorities and advance key research frontiers
to support economic competitiveness in NIT, this report calls for a more accurate accounting of this national
investment and recommends additional investments in NIT R&D, including research in networking and infor-
mation technology for health, energy and transportation, and cyber-infrastructure, among others.
NIT has yielded enormous benefits for the Nation’s economic competitiveness, national security, and quality
of life. To maintain America’s leadership in NIT in an ever more competitive global environment, the Federal
Government must be bold in its investments, including funding of high risk/high reward research with the
potential to move this essential field in unanticipated directions. PCAST believes that execution of the recom-
mendations in this report will enable us to address critical priorities and challenges in the years ahead.
Sincerely,
John P. Holdren Eric Lander Shirley Ann Jackson Eric Schmidt
PCAST Co-chair PCAST Co-chair PITAC Co-chair PITAC Co-chair
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