1011 



S-57 

 SCIENCE ACTIVITIES FROM OTHER MAJOR PROGRAMS 



Although the purview of this assessment centered on Major Programs 

 VI, IX, and X, there are certain activities in other Major Programs of 

 interest to U.S. scientists and engineers. A brief commentary on three 

 specific activities is provided, but it must be emphasized that it is 

 necessarily not as detailed as that provided for the major programs in 

 the report itself. Activities included here are: 



• Scientific and Technological Information ; Major Program VII (in 

 part) 



• Teaching of Science and Technology (secondary school level) : 

 subprogram V.2 



• Statistics on Science and Technology : General Activities, 

 Chapter 2 



Budgetary considerations for these activities are not included in 

 the overall discussion of programs and budgets at the beginning of 

 Chapter 4 of the NRC report. 



UNESCO's Program on Scientific and Technological Information 

 Assessment/Potential Impacts 



UNESCO's concern for development of scientific and technological 

 information services and networks goes back about 15 years to the 

 establishment of the UNISIST Program, largely a U.S. initiative. 

 Current UNISIST activities are contained within the General Information 

 Program (PGI) which is described in Major Program VII. The United 

 States is a member of the 30-country Intergovernmental Council for the 

 General Information Program. Overall Program VII activities, including 

 overhead, are budgeted at a level of $10 million per year; regular 

 program costs are about $6 million per year. Funding from "outside" 

 sources totals about $3.5 million per year. 



The access to and free flow of scientific and technical information 

 (STI) are of great importance to all countries. A major objective of 

 the United States in taking the initiative to establish the UNISIST 

 program in the early 1970s was to help the developing world avoid 

 becoming information "have-nots" during a period of rapidly evolving 

 technology influencing information handling on a worldwide scale. 

 Another objective was to be an active participant in discussions on 

 information standards and on information network development. 



There have been beneficial results from the UNISIST Program and 

 some problems — it has not achieved all that had been hoped. Some of 

 the problems stem from the fact that there has been diminished U.S. 

 leadership and presence in the program. For some years, there has been 

 no focal point in the federal government for considering policies. 



