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At the request of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR), Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, presents in this brief paper her views of the challenges of the 21st century for the science and engineering workforce. Dr. Jackson identifies factors that she believes are contributing to a declining science and engineering workforce, describes the risks and consequences of this decline, and proposes specific, short-term tasks for universities, industry, and the federal government to strengthen and revitalize the workforce.

This report summarizes discussions and insights from the workshop on Overcoming Barriers to Collaborative Research held March 23-24, 1998, in Irvine, California. The workshop was organized by the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss barriers to university-industry cooperation and to explore concrete approaches to overcoming them. Practitioners from universities and industry, as well as government policy makers, participated in the two-day workshop.

The Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable created a working group of government officials, corporate executives, university administrators, and scientists to examine current trends in the university research enterprise, predict the impact of trends on the future of the enterprise, determine the options for the future of the enterprise, and explore national strategies for meeting the challenges of the future. The working group's progress in analyzing the status of scientific and technological research in academic settings and identifying central issues is described. The first section outlines the status, trends, and issues in academic research in science and technology. Identified trends include the following: (1) the environment in which the academic research community must function will increase in complexity; (2) during the next decade, faculty retirements will increase demand for academic research personnel; and (3) sustaining the quality of current research institutions and programs is increasingly expensive. The second part summarizes trends and distributions in national and academic research and development expenditures, total academic expenditures and revenues, academic personnel, higher education enrollments, and science and engineering degrees. A substantial number of illustrative graphs are included. (MSE)

This report covers discussions at a symposium on the International Context for National Science and Technology Strategies. The meeting was held May 7, 1997 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., and was organized by the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR). The symposium featured presentations by experts representing academic, industry, and government viewpoints, from countries including China, Finland, France, Korea, Mexico, Poland, and the United States. The purpose of the activity was to explore how various countries and regions are developing science and technology strategies in the unfolding context of global economic integration and privatization, as well as mobility of people and information. The implications for future international cooperation were considered in this modern framework.

Each of 32 nonprofit organizations contributing a presentation to the Pan-Organizational Summit on the Science and Engineering Workforce (November 11-12, 2002; The National Academies, Washington, DC) was invited to issue a corresponding position paper to be reproduced in this volume. The bulk of this report comprises these papers. In addition, Shirley Jackson and Joseph Toole, two of the keynote speakers, have included their remarks.