Program Administration 



— The creation of the Life Sciences Senior Management Council, including 

 senior Center staff as well as key managers from Headquarters, provides a 

 forum for discussion and a mechanism to resolve program-wide issues. 



Recommendation 



• Senior NASA management should play a more active role in supporting 

 efforts of the Life Sciences Division to institutionalize substantive linkages 

 with relevant program elements in other parts of the Agency. 



NASA Life Sciences Advisory System 

 Findings 



• Although the Life Sciences program has historically relied on individuals and 

 groups outside the Agency for advice and support, it has had difficulties 

 establishing stable partnerships. 



— Through much of its life, the program has called on outside scientists and 

 consultants in a variable and often unpredictable way. It was not always 

 clear to program managers how they could adapt outside advice concerning 

 life sciences requirements and NASA realities. Too frequently, the recom- 

 mendations of blue ribbon scientific advisory committees could not be 

 accomplished because NASA staff could not find a way to implement them 

 within organizational, budget, and personnel limitations. 



— Similarly, program managers were not clear about how to develop a constit- 

 uency of support for the new ideas that filtered into the Agency or how to 

 build an inchoate constituency into a coordinated and productive program. 

 Budget limitations encouraged program managers to avoid outreach to new 

 constituents who, while potential supporters, were also supplicants for very 

 scarce research dollars. 



• The development of a new advisory structure for the Life Sciences program 

 supported by Discipline Working Groups holds great promise as a way of 

 addressing many of these historical problems. 



— The creation of Discipline Working Groups, including both outside 

 scientists as well as Center scientists, provides a framework for the effective 

 use of cohesive scientific advice in program development activities. 



— These groups will be part of the program disciplinary planning process, 

 with a separate group of outside scientists serving as the mechanism for 

 peer review of proposals. The chairs of the groups will constitute a 

 Division Science Working Group. 



Recommendation 



• The Life Sciences Division should evaluate the new advisory process, which 

 represents a significant and positive step, as soon as the new process is 

 instituted. 



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