Program Administration 



relationships with N1H, intensified its contact with international life 

 sciences efforts, particularly those involving the Soviet Union, and 

 stimulated new interest in the research community through efforts such as 

 the Space Life Sciences Symposium, held in the summer of 1987. 



— In each of these cases — especially those inside NASA — the Life Sciences 

 Division has been the initiating player, calling on others to respond to its 

 requests for participation in various decisions or decision-making arenas. 



Recommenda Hon 



• Senior NASA administrators should clearly support Division efforts that link 

 life sciences to the broader Agency goals by taking new actions, such as the 

 following: 



— Formally acknowledging the important differences between life sciences 

 and other science and engineering programs within NASA 



— Accentuating the importance of issues related to humans in space for the 

 Agency's advanced missions 



— Institutionalizing the ad hoc efforts by the Division to be involved in 

 Agency-wide planning (using existing processes, such as the program 

 review, as a way of examining both the centralized and decentralized 

 aspects of life sciences). 



Life Sciences Goals 



Findings 



• Throughout most of its history, program goals within the Life Sciences Division 

 have not been clearly articulated or disseminated. Until very recently, the Life 

 Sciences program has been an effort that was simply the sum of individual 

 parts, with the disparate pieces standing or falling on their own. Moreover, 

 since the lunar landing, there had not been a vision of the future uniting the 

 individual program pieces and providing a convincing justification of the 

 expenditure of time and money. 



• During the past 2 years, and specifically during the period of the Life Sciences 

 Strategic Planning Study Committee (LSSPSC) effort, the Life Sciences Division 

 has made great strides in addressing these past practices. Responding to the 

 general recommendations given in A Strategy for Space Biolog}/ and Medical 

 Science for the 1980s and 1990s (National Academy of Sciences, 1987), as well as 

 to suggestions by the LSSPSC, the establishment of the system for developing 

 Program Disciplinary Plans holds great promise. These plans will include both 

 ground and flight research activities, as well as intramural and extramural 

 research. Once developed and disseminated, the process will provide a vehicle 

 for others to comprehend the Division's program goals. 



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