Committee on Evaluating the Efficiency of Research and Development Programs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy Policy and Global Affairs Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology Division on Earth and Life Studies THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Insti- tute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance. This project was supported by Contract 68-C-03-081 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Any opinions, findings, conclu- sions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project. International Standard Book Number-13 978-0-309-11684-8 International Standard Book Number-10 0-309-11684-8 Additional copies of this report are available from The National Academies Press 500 Fifth Street, NW Box 285 Washington, DC 20055 800-624-6242 202-334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area) http://www.nap.edu Copyright 2008 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering. The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the re- sponsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine. The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the Na- tional Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council. www.national-academies.org COMMITTEE ON EVALUATING THE EFFICIENCY OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS AT THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY Members GILBERT S. OMENN (Chair), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor GEORGE V. ALEXEEFF, California Environmental Protection Agency, Oakland RADFORD BYERLY, JR., University of Colorado, Boulder EDWIN H. CLARK II, Earth Policy Institute, Washington, DC SUSAN E. COZZENS, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta LINDA J. FISHER, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Wilmington, DE J. PAUL GILMAN, Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies, Oak Ridge, TN T.J. GLAUTHIER, TJG Energy Associates, LLC, Moss Beach, CA CAROL J. HENRY, Independent Consultant, Bethesda, MD ROBERT J. HUGGETT, College of William and Mary, Seaford, VA SALLY KATZEN, George Mason University School of Law, Fairfax, VA TERRY F. YOUNG, Environmental Defense, Oakland, CA Staff RICHARD BISSELL, Executive Director, Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy DEBORAH STINE, Associate Director, Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (up to August 2007) EILEEN ABT, Senior Program Officer ALAN ANDERSON, Consultant Writer NORMAN GROSSBLATT, Senior Editor JENNIFER SAUNDERS, Associate Program Officer RAE BENEDICT, Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Fellow MIRSADA KARALIC-LONCAREVIC, Manager, Toxicology Information Center NEERAJ P. GORKHALY, Senior Program Assistant MORGAN R. MOTTO, Senior Program Assistant Sponsor U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY v COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, ENGINEERING, AND PUBLIC POLICY Members GEORGE WHITESIDES (Chair), Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, Harvard University, Boston, MA CLAUDE R. CANIZARES, Vice President for Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge RALPH J. CICERONE (Ex officio), President, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC EDWARD F. CRAWLEY, Executive Director, CMI, and Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge RUTH A. DAVID, President and Chief Executive Officer, Analytic Services, Inc., Arlington, VA HAILE T. DEBAS, Executive Director, UCSF Global Health Sciences, Maurice Galante Distinguished Professor of Surgery, San Francisco, CA HARVEY FINEBERG (Ex officio), President, Institute of Medicine, Washington, DC JACQUES S. GANSLER, Vice President for Research, University of Maryland, College Park ELSA M. GARMIRE, Professor, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH M. R. C. GREENWOOD (Ex officio), Professor of Nutrition and Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis W. CARL LINEBERGER, Professor of Chemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder C. DAN MOTE, JR. (Ex officio), President and Glenn Martin Institute Professor of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park ROBERT M. NEREM, Parker H. Petit Professor and Director, Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta LAWRENCE T. PAPAY, Retired, Sector Vice President for Integrated Solutions, Science Applications International Corporation, La Jolla, CA ANNE C. PETERSEN, Professor of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA SUSAN C. SCRIMSHAW, President, Simmons College, Boston, MA WILLIAM J. SPENCER, Chairman Emeritus, SEMATECH, Austin, TX LYDIA THOMAS (Ex officio), Retired, Mitretek Systems, Inc., Falls Church, VA CHARLES M. VEST (Ex officio), President, National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC NANCY S. WEXLER, Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology, Columbia University, New York, NY MARY LOU ZOBACK, Vice President Earthquake Risk Applications, Risk Management Solutions, Inc., Newark, CA vi Staff RICHARD BISSELL, Executive Director DEBORAH STINE, Associate Director (up to August 2007) MARION RAMSEY, Administrative Coordinator NEERAJ P. GORKHALY, Senior Program Assistant vii BOARD ON ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND TOXICOLOGY Members JONATHAN M. SAMET (Chair), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD RAMON ALVAREZ, Environmental Defense Fund, Austin, TX JOHN M. BALBUS, Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, DC DALLAS BURTRAW, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC JAMES S. BUS, Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI RUTH DEFRIES, University of Maryland, College Park COSTEL D. DENSON, University of Delaware, Newark E. DONALD ELLIOTT, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, Washington, DC MARY R. ENGLISH, University of Tennessee, Knoxville J. PAUL GILMAN, Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies, Oak Ridge, TN SHERRI W. GOODMAN, Center for Naval Analyses, Alexandria, VA JUDITH A. GRAHAM (Retired), Pittsboro, NC WILLIAM P. HORN, Birch, Horton, Bittner and Cherot, Washington, DC WILLIAM M. LEWIS, JR., University of Colorado, Boulder JUDITH L. MEYER, University of Georgia, Athens DENNIS D. MURPHY, University of Nevada, Reno PATRICK Y. O’BRIEN, ChevronTexaco Energy Technology Company, Richmond, CA DOROTHY E. PATTON, (Retired) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Chicago, IL DANNY D. REIBLE, University of Texas, Austin JOSEPH V. RODRICKS, ENVIRON International Corporation, Arlington, VA ARMISTEAD G. RUSSELL, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta ROBERT F. SAWYER, University of California, Berkeley KIMBERLY M. THOMPSON, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MONICA G. TURNER, University of Wisconsin, Madison MARK J. UTELL, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY CHRIS G. WHIPPLE, ENVIRON International Corporation, Emeryville, CA LAUREN ZEISE, California Environmental Protection Agency, Oakland Senior Staff JAMES J. REISA, Director DAVID J. POLICANSKY, Scholar RAYMOND A. WASSEL, Senior Program Officer for Environmental Studies EILEEN N. ABT, Senior Program Officer for Risk Analysis SUSAN N.J. MARTEL, Senior Program Officer for Toxicology KULBIR BAKSHI, Senior Program Officer ELLEN K. MANTUS, Senior Program Officer RUTH E. CROSSGROVE, Senior Editor viii OTHER REPORTS OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, ENGINEERING, AND PUBLIC POLICY Advanced Research Instrumentation and Facilities (2006) Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering (2006) Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future (2005) Policy Implications of International Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars in the United States (2005) Setting Priorities for NSF-sponsored Large Research Facility Projects (2004) Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research (2004) Science and Technology in the National Interest: Ensuring the Best Presidential and Federal Advisory Committee and Technology Appointments (2004) Electronic Scientific, Technical and Medical Journal Publishing and ITS Implications (2004) Observations on the President’s Fiscal Year 2003 Federal Science and Technology Budget (2003) Implementing the Government Performance and Results Act for Research: A Status Report (2003) Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning (2002) Observations on the President’s Fiscal Year 2002 Federal Science and Technology Budget (2002) Experiments in International Benchmarking of U.S. Research Fields (2000) Observations on the President’s Fiscal Year 2001 Federal Science and Technology Budget (2000) Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers: A Guide for Postdoctoral Scholars, Advisors, Institutions, Funding Organizations, and Disciplinary Societies (2000) Science and Technology in the National Interest: The Presidential Appointment Process (2000) Evaluating Federal Research Programs: Research and the Government Performance and Results Act (1999) Capitalizing on Investments in Science and Technology (1999) Observations on the President’s Fiscal Year 2000 Federal Science and Technology Budget (1999) Observations on the President’s Fiscal Year 1999 Federal Science and Technology Budget (1998) Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering (1997) Proceedings of the National Convocation on Science and Engineering Doctoral Education (1996) Careers in Science and Engineering: A Student Planning Guide to Grad School and Beyond (1996) ix