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LEADERSHIP AND THE RESEAItCH AGENDA S9 



of science, engineering, energy, and economics, and a capability to develop 

 integrated environment, energy, and economic policies. 



OEQ should also work with OSTP to identify major R&D needs, 

 to promote the improvement of risk assessment and risk management pro- 

 cedures, and to coordinate major R&D initiatives. In addition, OEQ should 

 work closely with the Office of Management and Budget in guiding the 

 budget process with respect to environmental programs. 



INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT 



'An Institute for EnvimnmentaJ Assessment (I^) should be established 

 to evaluate global and national environmental problems and to develop 

 alternative approaches to them. 



Meeting the enormous environmental challenges of the future will 

 require not only a major commitment to research and development, but 

 the development of innovative environmental protection policies. The fed- 

 eral government currently lacks a critical mass of individuals who can assess 

 the information resulting from our natural science research efforts and con- 

 sider its implications in the context of current economic, social, and political 

 realities. Although various federal agencies have offices devoted to policy 

 planning and evaluation, these units are relatively small, and they appro- 

 priately devote their resources to issues pertinent to the missions of the agencies 

 they support. With the exception of a small staflF within the President's Council 

 on Environmental Quality, there is no federal organization devoted to the 

 comprehensive analysis of envirorunental i>olicy. 



We believe that the federal govertuncnt's efifectiveness in addressing 

 environmental problems is severely limited by this lack of analytical and 

 planning capability. Assessment is the bridge between science and policy. >' 

 Two major discontinuiues now exist between the two: "One is that policy- 

 makers fail to understand the limits of what science can determine. And 

 the second is that scientists very frequently &il to understand what the policy 

 community really needs to know."»' The federal government needs a mech- 

 anism to bridge the gap between science and policy. 



We therefore recommend the establishment of an Institute for En- 

 vironmental Assessment dedicated to the evaluation of global and na- 

 tional environmental problems, the achievement of sustainable develop- 

 ment, the assessment of research and monitoring data, the evaluation of 

 emerging environmental technologies, the development of economic, legal, 

 and social analyses of mechanisms to address environmental problems, and 

 the development and assessment of integrated strategies to address environ- 



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