The United States of America prides itself as one of the most technologically-advanced countries in the world. Boosting some of this generation’s biggest state-of-the-art research laboratories, the United States government is constantly looking for ways to support and improve the nation’s science and technology sector.
Aside from serving as a major financial and economical forefront, science and technology also serves as one of the most essential facets of human discovery. It poses great promise and potential in enriching the lives of people, not only the Americans, but also human beings all over the world.
In an effort to sustain, improve, and support the science and technology sector, the United States government has established various agencies that are specifically tasked to address science and technology research and development concerns.
On top of the list, is the National Science Foundation, otherwise referred to as NSF. The NSF was established in the year 1950 to support fundamental research studies and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. The primary mission of the NSF is “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense.”
The NSF intends to carry out its mission by leading numerous initiatives and by establishing grant programs such as the Energy, Power, and Adaptive Systems which primarily seeks to invest in the design and analysis of intelligent and adaptive engineering networks, including sensing, imaging, controls, and computational technologies for a variety of application domains.
Next up is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, more commonly known by everyone else as NASA. The agency is known for being accountable for the nation’s civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. Its primary agency mission is to “pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.”
Among others, it intends to achieve this mission by administering grant programs such as the ROSES 2012: Terrestrial Ecology Project, which seeks to solicit research proposals from eligible parties declaring their intent to support basic and applied research and technology studies across a broad range of Earth and space science program elements relevant to the files of Earth Science, Heliophysics, Planetary Science, and Astrophysics.
Meanwhile, the US government also has the Office of Science and Technology Policy, operating as an office in the Executive Office of the President (EOP). The office is generally tasked to accomplish its threefold mission which is to “(a) to provide the President and his senior staff with accurate, relevant, and timely scientific and technical advice on all matters of consequence; (b) to ensure that the policies of the Executive Branch are informed by sound science; and (c) to ensure that the scientific and technical work of the Executive Branch is properly coordinated so as to provide the greatest benefit to society.”
