The enactment of the America COMPETES Act in 2006 (and its reauthorization in 2010), the increase in research expenditures under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and President Obama's general emphasis on the contribution of science and technology to economic growth have all heightened interest in the role of scientific and engineering research in creating jobs, generating innovative technologies, spawning new industries, improving health, and producing other economic and societal benefits. Along with this interest has come a renewed emphasis on a question that has been asked for decades: Can the impacts and practical benefits of research to society be measured either quantitatively or qualitatively? On April 18-19, 2011, the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) and the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (COSEPUP) of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, held a workshop to examine this question. The workshop sought to assemble the range of work that has been done in measuring research outcomes and to provide a forum to discuss its method. The workshop was motivated by a 2009 letter from Congressman Rush Holt (D-New Jersey). He asked the National Academies to look into a variety of complex and interconnected issues, such as the short-term and long-term economic and non-economic impact of federal research funding, factors that determine whether federally funded research discoveries result in economic benefits, and quantification of the impacts of research on national security, the environment, health, education, public welfare, and decision making. Measuring the Impacts of Federal Investments in Research provides the key observations and suggestions made by the speakers at the workshop and during the discussions that followed the formal presentations.

American leadership in the world is built on the foundation of its economic strength. Yet the United States faces enormous economic competition abroad and threats to its economy at home. In How America Stacks Up: Economic Competitiveness and U.S. Policy, Edward Alden, Bernard L. Schwartz senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and director of the Renewing America initiative, and Rebecca Strauss, associate director of Renewing America, focus on those areas of economic policy that are the most important for reinforcing America’s competitive strengths. Covering education, transportation, trade and investment, corporate tax, worker retraining, regulation, debt and deficits, and innovation, How America Stacks Up shows how, in a highly competitive global economy, these seemingly domestic issues are all crucial to U.S. success in the global economy. The line between domestic economic policy and foreign economic policy is now almost invisible, and getting these policies right matters for more than just U.S. living standards. The United States’ ability to influence world events rests on a robust, competitive economy. But without further investment in education, infrastructure, and innovation, Alden and Strauss show, the United States runs the risk of endangering its greatest competitive advantage. Through insightful analysis and engaging graphics, How America Stacks Up outlines the challenges faced by the United States and prescribes solutions that will ensure a healthy, competitive U.S. economy for years to come.

Technology Transfer and US Public Sector Innovation provides an overview of US technology policies that are the genesis for observed technology transfer activities. By describing the technology transfer process from US federal laboratories and other public sector organizations, this exploration informs the reader in detail of how the transfer process behaves and the social benefits associated with it.

Public Budgeting Systems, Tenth Edition is the most comprehensive and balanced treatment of the current state of budgeting throughout all levels of the United States government. Current and prospective public managers, accordingly, often succeed or fail in their careers based in large part on whether they are intelligent consumers of financial data and have an adequate understanding of the budget process. By providing a detailed overview of all budgeting and financial management, the book enables students to gain an appropriate understanding of a complex topic.

This book brings together a collection of empirical case studies featuring a wide spectrum of medical innovation. While there is no unique pathway to successful medical innovation, recurring and distinctive features can be observed across different areas of clinical practice. This book examines why medical practice develops so unevenly across and within areas of disease, and how this relates to the underlying conditions of innovation across areas of practice. The contributions contained in this volume adopt a dynamic perspective on medical innovation based on the notion that scientific understanding, technology and clinical practice co-evolve along the co-ordinated search for solutions to medical problems. The chapters follow an historical approach to emphasise that the advancement of medical know-how is a contested, nuanced process, and that it involves a variety of knowledge bases whose evolutionary paths are rooted in the contexts in which they emerge. This book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners concerned with medical innovation, management studies and the economics of innovation. Chapter 5 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 3.0 license.

This volume compiles and reprints the responses of 37 organizations to a series of questions issued by the House Committee on Agriculture in anticipation of debates concerning the Research Title of the 1995 Farm Bill due for updating and revision. The questions address some of the following topics: the role of the federal government in agricultural research, coordination and relations with other federal agencies, the suitability of various regulations and procedures, setting research priorities, integrating federal-state-industry research pools, effectiveness of coordinating and advisory boards, efficiency and accountability in administration of these federal funds, partnerships with other types of organizations, guidelines for use of federal funds, land grant universities' roles, fund allocation formulas, and regional research and extension cooperation. The organizations that responded to these questions include the Department of Agriculture, the Coalition on Funding Agricultural Research Mission, professional societies such as the Phytopathological Society and the Entomological Society of America, individual higher education institutions like the Universities of Minnesota and Arkansas and Ohio State University, international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Associations such as the American Feed Industry Association and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges. (JB)

Fascinating and compelling in equal measure this volume presents a critical examination of the multilayered relationships between engineering and business. In so doing the study also stimulates ethical reflection on how these relationships either enhance or inhibit strategies to address vital issues of our time. In the context of geopolitical, economic, and environmental tendencies the authors explore the world that we should want to create and the role of the engineer and the business manager in this endeavor. Throughout this volume the authors identify periods of alignment and periods of tension between engineering and business. They look at focal points of the engineering-business nexus related to the development of capitalism. The book explores past and present movements to reshape, reform, or reject this nexus. The volume is informed by questions of importance for industry as well as for higher education. These are: What kinds of conflict arise for engineers in their attempts to straddle both professional and organizational commitments? How should professionals be managed to avoid a clash of managerial and professional cultures? How do engineers create value in firms and corporations? What kinds of tension exist between higher education and industry? What challenges does the neoliberal entrepreneurial university pose for management, faculty, students, society, and industry? Should engineering graduates be ready for work, and can they possibly be? What kinds of business issues are reflected in engineering education curricula, and for what purpose? Is there a limit to the degree of business hybridization in engineering degree programs, and if so, what would be the criterion for its definition? Is there a place in engineering education curricula for reflective critique of assumptions related to business and economic thinking? One ideal of management and control comes to the fore as the Anthropocene - the world transformed into an engineered artefact which includes human existence. The volume raises the question as to how engineering and business together should be considered, given the fact that the current engineering-business nexus remains embedded within an economic model of continual growth. By addressing macro-level issues such as energy policy, sustainable development, globalization, and social justice this study will both help create awareness and stimulate development of self-knowledge among practitioners, educators, and students thereby ultimately addressing the need for better informed citizens to safeguard planet Earth as a human life supporting system.