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Is competition between and within government R&D agencies a force for innovation and for achieving desired outcomes? Or does competition lead to waste, duplication, and unproductive rivalry? The answer is: it depends. Competition can be a powerful tool leading to desired outcomes if the system of incentives and rewards is structured appropriately. Competition is ubiquitous within the Federal R&D enterprise, and should be examined systematically in order to identify and apply lessons for achieving R&D objectives more quickly and efficiently. Under what conditions might competition serve the greater good and under what conditions might competition serve primarily the interests of the agencies in question?
This presentation will draw on diverse examples of competition within and between government R&D agencies and private-sector R&D entities or that involve directed competition between government and private sector R&D actors. Brief case studies will be presented examining the impact of competition on technological innovation: between the Livermore and Los Alamos laboratories; among NIH, DOE, and Celera in mapping the human genome; and on NASAs compete-and-cooperate approach to Space-X.

Join the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes for a quick and edifying lunchtime presentation, discussion and pizza.

Several decades will pass before the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy is accomplished. Two endmember scenarios can be envisioned: one with carbon capture and storage and one without. If, as is likely, our path lies closer to the latter, then it will be tempting to cool the over-warmed earth by adding SO2 to the stratosphere. Once the transition is completed, direct capture from the atmosphere will be necessary to bring CO2 back down.

This talk will focus on the intersection of new research objects (historical ontology) and changing information technologies (infrastructure). I ask, can we plan and organize for changing-objects-in-the-world? This research is based on an examination of a successful long-term scientific infrastructure that has been investigating HIV for nearly 30 years, and has weathered transformations in funding regimes, in collaboration technologies, and in its objects of its research: HIV disease. From this success story I extract 'strategies of the long now' used to plan, manage and respond to ongoing changes.

David Ribes is assistant professor in the Communication, Culture and Technology program (CCT) at at Georgetown University. He studies the emerging phenomena of cyberinfrastructure (i.e., networked information technologies in the support of science) and how these are transforming the practice and organization of contemporary knowledge production. A common theme of his research is investigating the sustainability of long-term research organizations. His primary methods are ethnographic and archival. More at http://davidribes.com.

What it means to be human is changing. Emerging technologies are transforming our minds, our relationships, everything we own and the very landscapes in which we live. What kinds of humans will we become? What kinds of humans should we become?
Sponsored by: Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts; The Center for Nanotechnology in Society; ASU Office of the President; Intel; The Prevail Project of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law; Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering; Lightworks