 |     | |
 | ||||||
| ||||||
|          | |  “National Academies Keck Futures Initiatives” to Transform Interdisciplinary Research 2003-04-15 WASHINGTON, April 15, 2003 – The National Academies and W.M. Keck Foundation are pleased to announce a 15-year, $40 million grant from the Keck Foundation to underwrite the "National Academies Keck Futures Initiative," a new program designed to realize the untapped potential of interdisciplinary research. The Futures Initiative was created to stimulate new modes of inquiry and break down the conceptual and institutional barriers to interdisciplinary research that could yield significant benefits to science and society. The National Academies and Keck Foundation believe considerable scientific progress will be achieved by providing a counterbalance to the powerful impulse to isolate research within academic fields, by engaging scientists from different disciplines to focus on new questions on which they can base entirely new research, and by encouraging and rewarding outstanding communication – between scientists as well as between the scientific enterprise and the public. The Futures Initiative will:
“We are indebted to the Keck Foundation for its willingness to think long term,” said Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences. “The foundation will be joining us in encouraging and funding exciting new ideas by researchers – ideas that might not qualify for traditional forms of support. It will take time and a focused effort to break down current constraints and build new ways of working across disciplines. We are pleased to have Keck as our partner as we embark on this ambitious new program.” “The Futures Initiative is designed to create a powerful, ongoing forum where the best and brightest minds from across the disciplines of science, technology, and medical research can come together and ask each other, ‘What if…?’” said Robert A. Day, chairman and chief executive officer of the W.M. Keck Foundation. “More than that, they can then secure the funds necessary to pursue ideas and conduct follow-on research. Training individuals who are conversant in ideas and languages of other fields is central to the continued march of scientific progress in the 21st century. The W.M. Keck Foundation is proud to participate in this important effort.” Details of the Futures Initiative Twice each year, the Futures Initiative will bring together some of the nation's outstanding researchers to ask questions and share insights and ideas about a particular promising interdisciplinary field. Some of the researchers will then be selected and funded to continue working on collaborative research. The National Academies will also undertake a consensus study to address current problems in interdisciplinary research and how to facilitate more successful collaborations supported by funding organizations and academic institutions. The Futures Initiative will present three National Academies Communication Awards each year. These $20,000 prizes will recognize scientists, engineers, medical researchers, journalists, authors, and film/television/radio producers who, in the preceding two years, have made special contributions to the public understanding of science and, in particular, of the promise of cutting-edge interdisciplinary research. The Academies will begin accepting nominations for these awards in May 2003. Inauguration of the Futures Initiative will be celebrated by the National Academies and the Keck Foundation on May 13, 2003, at the Academies' new building at 500 Fifth St., N.W., in downtown Washington. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony that day, the building will be officially renamed and dedicated as “The Keck Center of the National Academies.” A 90-minute symposium, to be led by three researchers, will feature the theme chosen as this first year's interdisciplinary research focus: the nature and role of “signaling” in neuroscience, cell biology, the physical sciences, and engineering. Additional information on the initiative follows. The National Academies comprise the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council. They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under an 1863 congressional charter. Based in Los Angeles, the W.M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late W.M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Company. The Foundation's grant making is focused primarily on pioneering efforts in the areas of medical research, science and engineering. The Foundation also maintains a Southern California Grant Program that provides support in the areas of civic and community services with a special emphasis on children. # # # The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative The National Academies share with the W.M. Keck Foundation the strong conviction that opportunities for researchers to cross disciplinary and professional boundaries are of paramount importance to scientific progress. Today’s extraordinary societal challenges call for reaching beyond the established patterns and organization of the research community. While the need for and impulse toward interdisciplinary and cross-professional engagement is growing, there are still persistent barriers to communication that result from disciplinary specialization and vastly different cultures in science, engineering, and medical research. These barriers inhibit leaps forward in discovery and obstruct the application of new knowledge. Successful communication among individuals who work in different professional worlds is key to advancing science, engineering, and medicine for the improvement of the human condition. The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative is a new 15-year effort to enhance communication among researchers, scientists, universities, and the general public – with the objective of stimulating interdisciplinary research at the cutting edge of knowledge. The effort is built on three pillars that will foster vital research: interdisciplinary encounters that counterbalance specialization and isolation; posing new questions; and close communication that bridges languages, cultures, habits of thought, and institutions. Working toward establishing this new foundation, the Futures Initiative incorporates four core activities: Futures Conferences convene two gatherings a year of some of the nation’s outstanding researchers from academic, industrial, and government laboratories to ask questions about and to discover interdisciplinary, cross-professional research connections within a specific area of science, engineering, and medicine to be selected each year. The annual theme will be selected based on assessments of where the intersection of science, engineering, and medical research has the greatest potential to spark new discovery. The first year’s research theme is “Signaling and the Derivation of Meaning by Computations in Neuroscience, Cell Biology, and Engineering.” Futures Awards provide seed grants to Futures Conference participants, on a competitive basis, to further pursue important new ideas and connections stimulated by the conferences. These grants will fill a critical missing link between bold new ideas and major federal funding programs, which do not presently offer seed grants in new areas that are considered risky or exotic. In the first four years, there will be four Keck Futures Research Grants of approximately $200,000, each to be spent over a two-year period. These sizable grants will enable researchers to take important next steps in developing a line of inquiry by supporting the recruitment of students and postdoctoral fellows, purchase of equipment, and acquisition of preliminary data – which in turn will position the researchers to compete for larger awards from federal sources. National Academies Communication Awards make three $20,000 awards each year, with the goals of providing recognition for outstanding communicators in science, technology, and medicine; of creating a broader understanding among federal and private decision-makers and the public; and of showing researchers and non-researchers alike that excellence in communication across boundaries and the advancement of public’s understanding of science are themselves significant and valued achievements. The candidate pool will include science, engineering, and medical researchers, as well as journalists, authors, and producers who have demonstrated excellence in communication in print, radio, television, or film. To receive an award, the communicator’s achievement must:
Preference will be given to communicators whose work has also illuminated the opportunities, challenges, successes, and potential of interdisciplinary and cross-professional research. Awardees will be invited to attend and participate in the Keck Futures Conferences each year. A National Academies Consensus Study will examine the current state of interdisciplinary research, and provide recommendations on how it can be facilitated by public and private funding organizations and academic institutions. The study will:
| | | |
| ||||||
|