CCST has extended invitations to six major federal research and development laboratories to become affiliate members. If negotiations are successful, it would mark the first time that CCST has expanded its group of supporting institutions since its inception in 1988.
"The affiliation of California's DOE and NASA laboratories with CCST will increase our capacity to provide high-quality evidence based S&T advice to the state."
-S. Robert Foley, Vice president for Laboratory Management, University of California
The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories/California, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the NASA Ames Research Center have been invited to join as affiliate members for an initial period of five years.
To date, interactions between CCST and the national laboratories have been significant. The Council currently includes Michael Anastasio, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Miriam John, vice president of the Sandia National Laboratories/California, and G. Scott Hubbard, director of the NASA Ames Research Center as members. In addition the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Steven Chu, is a CCST Fellow.
"There is no doubt that these laboratories are among the small list of key organizations that have the scientific and technical capacity to provide high-quality advice to the state," said CCST Executive Director Susan Hackwood. "We believe it would benefit the state significantly if we were to formalize CCST's relationship with these institutions at this point."
CCST's experiences of the last few years have demonstrated the importance of the wide range of science and technology issues confronting the state. In addition, CCST has experienced a dramatic increase in requests for advice by state decision and policymakers. Those two factors require that CCST both increase its capacity to provide advice and formalize its links with all key science and technology organizations in the state.
"The affiliation of California's DOE and NASA laboratories with CCST will increase our capacity to provide high-quality evidence based S&T advice to the state," said S. Robert Foley, vice president for Laboratory Management at the University of California.
CCST's current academic members are the University of California, the California State University System, the California Community Colleges, California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of Southern California. Expanding CCST's affiliates to include the DOE and NASA laboratories will enable it to expand the resources it can use to respond to its charge. In turn, it offers these laboratories a forum through which they can inform policymakers on issues that are both laboratory and non-laboratory specific and that affect the health and vitality of the science and technology enterprise in California. CCST would also undertake a pair of studies, updating its 1999 overview of major federal laboratories in California and analyzing the national laboratories' relationship with research universities and industry.
"We have collaborated with them time and again on projects ranging from nanotechnology to counterterrorism," said Hackwood. "It just makes sense to take this collaboration to the next level."
