Security, science panel is suggested
WASHINGTON --A new commission should be established to help balance the need for scientific openness and security concerns in a world facing terrorism, the National Research Council urged Thursday.
The new Science and Security Commission should be co-chaired by the president's national security adviser and the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, said the council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences. It should include representatives from academic research institutions and national security agencies.
Scientific research as well as business and the flow of information have become global, the report observed.
Restrictions on the flow of information, researchers and students can be seen as hampering terrorism, but such actions can also be detrimental to advances in this country.
"Unnecessary or ill-conceived restrictions could jeopardize the scientific and technical progress that our nation depends upon," said Jacques S. Gansler, former U.S. undersecretary of defense and vice president for research at the University of Maryland, College Park. Gansler was co-chair of the committee that prepared the report.
The report said: "The political leadership of the United States must understand, and in turn must help all Americans understand, that as a nation the United States has no exclusive ownership of ideas or knowledge and that scientific discoveries and technological advances made in the United States often rely on knowledge created outside our borders."
While it is prudent to restrict the most harmful and dangerous material, "unnecessarily closing ourselves off from the world in a futile effort to protect ourselves will only isolate us ...." the report said.
Concerns about espionage should not be disregarded, the report said, but they do not justify extreme measures disrupting academic openness.
President Reagan issued a national security directive that, to the maximum extent possible, the government should not restrict the results of unclassified fundamental research.
Federal agencies funding research should make sure grant recipients understand that rule, the report said.
In 2004, the Association of American Universities and Council on Governmental Relations prepared a report on restrictions on research grants and contracts. The new study urged that be updated annually and said it should be expanded to review use of the category "sensitive but unclassified."
There should be regular government-wide reviews on export restrictions, focusing particularly on removing of outdated items. It makes no sense to restrict export of technologies that are broadly available in other countries, the report said.
"Science thrives when there is free exchange of information and when scientists and engineers are able to cross borders to train, collaborate and share knowledge," the NRC said.
The United States should continue to welcome and encourage talented students from around the world, the report said.
The study was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation.
The National Academy of Sciences is an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters.
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