7: Provide the Resource Foundations that Enable Great Science

Create and sustain the discovery-class tools, 21st Century scientific and technical workforce, research partnerships, and management systems that support the foundations for a highly productive, world-class national science enterprise.

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Executive Summary: Our Nation’s research enterprise depends upon a solid foundation that has been built through careful investments in people, institutions and major scientific facilities. Of particular note are the “discovery-class” scientific tools that we construct and operate. Our goal is to continue to provide leadership, stewardship, and balance of this vital combined infrastructure. Detailed Commentary: Great leaps in the health and well being of our Nation require solid foundations of science. More than half of our national economic growth since 1945 is directly attributable to advances in energy production, energy efficiency, medicine, computation, and other technologies that have their basis in fundamental research. The Office of Science has played a major role in this national success story, contributing scientific advances in nuclear energy, nuclear medicine, advanced computation, genomics, materials science, chemistry, physics, and other areas that have resulted in 35 Nobel Prizes and thousands of industrial patents since DOE’s inception in 1977. Modern science, not to mention the scientific endeavor of the future, is different from the science of our past. Increasingly, revolutionary scientific discoveries will involve: • A complex interplay between scientists from different disciplines • Scientific tools of incredible power and scope • The ability to draw from a large pool of scientific and technical talent • A modern research infrastructure and work environment • Management practices that deliver outstanding science for each taxpayer dollar. The Office of Science is uniquely positioned to address many of these challenges, and thus to strengthen the foundations of U.S. science and help lead our Nation into a new era of scientific discovery. No other organization in the world builds and operates such a diverse array of large-scale, discovery-class scientific tools. Furthermore, our track record of envisioning, designing, building, and operating large-scale scientific facilities on time and on budget is unmatched by any other Federal agency, the private sector, or the university community. These facilities and the 10 DOE Office of Science national laboratories that we manage have become national crucibles for interdisciplinary research. In them, our programs can bring the power of thousands of researchers together in multidisciplinary teams to solve large-scale scientific challenges. The Office of Science specializes in scientific challenges that require such facilities and approaches, challenges that are high-risk and high-payoff. Furthermore, our laboratories are an ideal training ground for young researchers eager to work alongside Nobel laureates and other worldclass scientists in multidisciplinary settings. We take pride in managing for excellence in science through rigorous peer and advisory committee reviews of our research, our construction projects, and the way we operate.

Objective(s):

7.1: Discovery-Class Tools

7.2: Research Opportunities

7.3: Partnerships

7.4: Research Enterprise Management

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