Speaker: Charles Holland
Affiliation: Director of Information Systems,
                     Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense
                     (Science & Technology)
Date: 9/14/00
Time and Location: 4:15pm, B17 Upson Hall
Title: Programs, Policy and Politics -
          Science and Technology in the National Interest
Abstract: 

The formulation of Science and Technology Policy and Programs within the Federal Government is as complex a topic as many of the research projects that we fund. Fundamentally, the efforts of all the research funding and oversight organizations are to ensure that the public trust of billions of dollars allocated by Congress for Research and Development are spent wisely on priority topics of national interest and perhaps more importantly, on topics that address the mission of the given agency or department. For the Department of Defense this mission is to ensure the military today and tomorrow have superior and affordable technology to support their missions and to provide revolutionary war-winning capabilities. The role of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology is to provide oversight of the DoD S&T investment, to represent the Department in interagency science & technology fora, to address Congressional issues and to act as the advocate for the technical community in interactions with other command, operations and policy components of the Department of Defense. This presentation will focus on how research priorities are set, how the DoD funding agencies are organized, and what drives Washington decision-making. The growing importance of information assurance and reliability in the context of the President's commitment to Critical Infrastructure Protection and the DoD Vision of Information Dominance will be highlighted.