Success Stories
Strategic Planning For Science And Technology
Making A Real
Difference | Strategic Planning | Report
To Congress | Auditing Federal
Education Program Indicators
Client
National Science Foundation
(NSF), Arlington, VA
Task
NSF supports Science & Technology Centers (STCs) at Research- 1
academic institutions to develop and implement long-term complex and
large scale innovative science and technological initiatives. C&A
was asked to assist the University
of Kansas’s CReSIS STC and the University
of California at Berkeley TRUST STC in developing strategic and
implementation plans for their $40 million centers. (2005)
Outcome/Impact
C&A successfully guided these two institutions in developing a 5-year
strategic plan. C&A’s assistance resulted in the final NSF
approval of the University of Kansas “CReSIS” and University
of California at Berkeley “TRUST” Science and Technology
Centers. C&A’s technical assistance also greatly facilitated
NSF’s regular processing of STC applications.
What Is CReSis?
The determination of the growth or shrinkage
of ice sheets has acquired special urgency because of recent observations
of unexpected glacier retreat, ice shelf collapse, and change in ice
stream velocities in Antarctica and a few outlet glaciers in Greenland.
The rates at which the ice sheets acquire or lose volume are affected
by daily and seasonal variations in snowfall, snow drift, temperature,
and other weather and climate variables. In turn, accumulation and loss
rates will affect the contribution of the ice sheets to sea level. Because
of the possible effects on coastal regions and populations of sea level
rise, scientists are in need of tools and models that will help them
measure and predict the response of ice sheets to climate change. This
is a complex problem that demands the active collaboration of scientists
and engineers to produce useful remote sensing and field observations,
to find a satisfactory way of combining and interpreting them, and to
develop new technologies, and models. University of Kansas's CReSIS STC
What Is TRUST?
Computer trustworthiness continues to increase in importance as a pressing
scientific, economic, and social problem. The last decade has seen a
rapid increase in computer security attacks at all levels, as more individuals
connect to common networks and as motivations and means to conduct sophisticated
attacks increase. A parallel and accelerating trend of the last decade
has been the rapidly growing integration role of computing and communication
in critical infrastructure systems, such as financial, energy distribution,
telecommunication and transportation, which now have complex interdependencies
rooted in information technologies. These overlapping and interacting
trends force us to recognize that trustworthiness of our computer systems
is not an IT issue alone; it has a direct and immediate impact on our
nation's critical infrastructure. As a consequence, there is an acute
need for developing a much deeper understanding of the scientific foundations
of cyber security and critical infrastructure systems, as well as their
implications for economic and public policy. University
of California at Berkeley TRUST STC
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