best to balance these two and so far it’s
working pretty well.”
What the future holds
All of the R&D agencies have issued
plans for meeting the requirement set up
by the White House to supply free public
access after a 12-month embargo to their
published research. But since there are
so many agencies and to research every
single one would be cumbersome, the
government is looking into a single-access point to all governmentfunded
R&D. The portal for this project already
exists—it is called science.gov. While the
website does not yet have the capability
for this project, it is something in the
realm of possibility that’s not difficult
to do and is being worked on for future
access, said Salmon.
Going forward, the White House is also
looking to seamlessly integrate text, data,
videos and all other information that will
appear in a publication. Computer-driv-en text and data mining is the newly
accessible collection that the government
is putting together, which is said to hold
tremendous opportunity for discovery.
“The government is not about efficiency, it’s about representation. For some we
have found that progress and the public
access field is much too slow, they would
argue that the government is dragging
its feet in getting this article off the
ground,” Salmon concluded. “For others
it’s a threat to the publishing community.
We’ve tried to find a way to meet these
competing interests while serving the
—Anna Spiewak, Contributing Editor
Jeffrey Salmon, Ph.D,
deputy director for resource
management for the
R&D 100 Conference in
Washington, D.C.,
November 2016.
R&D 100 Conference Focuses on
that Drive the Economy
Innovation Strategies
The second annual R&D 100 Conference, held Nov. 2-4, 2016 in the Washington, DC
area, brought together R&D professionals to explore R&D trends and
hot topics, including the General
Session –“Inspired Leadership in
R&D: The New Face of Public Access
to Federal R&D Results”—which
focused on this nation’s rich repository of scientific data, new technology
and discovery.
Dr. Jeffrey Salmon, Deputy Director, Resource Management, Department of Energy (DOE), explained
the model used by the DOE and its
national laboratories to provide the
vital information needed to further
science and innovation involving
such significant research areas as
energy, national security and the
environment. The R&D community, as well as the public, needs to be
aware of and have access to the many
scientific breakthroughs to further
research and accelerate progress. Dr.
Salmon’s presentation outlined the
important progress across federal
agencies in terms of public access to
federal R&D results—and how it has
impacted the R&D community and
drives economic growth.
The R&D 100 Conference is held in
conjunction with the R&D 100 Awards,
which celebrates 55 years in 2017. Since
1963, the R&D 100 Awards program
has identified and celebrated the top
100 technology products of the year.
Past winners have included significant
testing equipment, innovative new
materials, chemistry breakthroughs,
biomedical products, consumer items,
and technologies spanning industry,
academia and government-sponsored
research. A detailed list of 2016 winners and information on the 2017 R&D
100 Awards program is available at
rd100conference.com. Entries are now
open for the 2017 R&D 100 Awards
program.
In addition to Dr. Salmon’s Gener-
al Session on public access to federal
R&D, the conference also featured
an impressive roster of educational
sessions and networking opportuni-
ties with a theme of “R&D Strategy,
Innovation and Leadership.”
Throughout the conference,
cross-disciplinary sessions addressed
a variety of developments from the
past year. Keynote speakers and
breakout sessions provided R&D
forecasts for the coming year and cre-
ated collaborative opportunities for
sharing ideas and networking with
industry peers.
The 2017 R&D 100 Conference
will be held Nov. 16-17, 2017 at the
Walt Disney World Swan Hotel in
Orlando, Florida.