SUMMARY OF MOTIONS AND ACTION ITEMS APPROVED BY THE NOAA SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD NOAA Science Advisory Board Meeting October 19-21, 1999 Boulder, Colorado MOTIONS OAR Climate and Global Change Working Group To approve the Terms of Reference, as modified, and to authorize the SAB Chair, Alfred Beeton, to consult with David Evans to make the appointments of qualified experts to the pilot review panel giving strong consideration to the appointment of a person working for a foreign research institution. In making the appointments, Dr. Beeton should consider diversity, gender, geographic distribution, and constituency representation. The Board expects to see a history of appointees with brief bios and other information to give the SAB a good background understanding of the qualifications of each appointee. The Chair is not limited to appointment from the list of names submitted together with this item. The modifications included: (1) AIn all its activities the working group will take into consideration" the eight themes set forth by the SAB ......., (2) "Working Group members will be appointed for four-year terms with the opportunity for one additional term" and 3) strike the last sentence "Initial appointments to the working group will be for a one-year term." NESDIS Review Panel To ask NESDIS to revise its proposed review process and the list of recommended appointees consistent with SAB concerns (i.e., that SAB guiding principles be woven into the review) and to authorize the Chair and Steering Committee to approve the review process on behalf of the SAB. To authorize the Chair, Alfred Beeton, in consultation with the appropriate NOAA representative, to make the appointments to this review panel, taking into consideration diversity, geographic distribution, constituency involvement, gender, background and expertise. The SAB expects to receive a listing of appointees with their qualifications. Report to the Next Secretary of Commerce and NOAA Administrator The Chair will appoint and work with a working group of SAB members to prepare a draft letter/report to next Secretary of Commerce and NOAA Administrator and schedule a review, discussion, and possible action by the SAB on this letter/report at its April 2000 meeting. Establishment of an Ocean and Coastal Information Dissemination Service That the SAB ask Dr. Baker take appropriate action to establish, organize or otherwise make operational an effective, efficient, user friendly information dissemination process whereby ocean and coastal scientific, educational research and technical data and information and expertise (i.e., scientists, researchers, studies, reports, assessments) generated by NOAA are readily made accessible to coastal policy makers and/or implementers. The SAB urges that a system of local or regional partnerships with universities, cooperative institutes, marine laboratories, Sea Grant, and/or Coastal Service Centers be utilized to provide this service in a nationally consistent manner to better link science and policy, build capacity for stewardship, promote education and maximize efficient use of NOAA science to inform coastal and ocean stewardship and improve decision-making at the international, national, regional, state and local level. ACTION ITEMS MICHAEL UHART - Electronically distribute to the Board members the draft plan for the NOS review process. BOARD MEMBERS - Provide written comments on the proposed NOS review process to the Executive Director by December 10, 1999. The comments will be collated by the Executive Director and forwarded to the NOS. SUSAN ZEVIN - Provide the SAB with a copy of the draft report, "The Nation's Environmental Data: Treasures at Risk" in November and the final version to the Sub-Committee on Data Issues when completed. SUSAN FRUCHTER - Provide Board members with FY 2000 budget data and information to be presented at the April Science Advisory Board meeting. These data and information should be provided as early as practicable. SUSAN FRUCHTER – Provide the SAB data and pie charts of how much research there is in each strategic goal vs. total spending in FY 2000. SUSAN FRUCHTER - Provide the SAB the following information for the NOAA FY 2000 budget request: what NOAA requested and what got de-railed; what NOAA received and how it was distributed; and the differences with what the agency actually did with the money (amount of discretion with the allocation). SUSAN FRUCHTER - Ensure that each Board member is invited to the February 2000 constituent workshops. MICHAEL UHART - Send to the Assistant Administrators, through the most appropriate means, the text accompanying each of the Science Advisory Board's eight guiding principals for NOAA research. MICHAEL UHART - Work with NOAA's Office of Legislative Affairs to provide members of the Board a list of the appropriate congressional staff that members of the Board can visit in April for the purpose of explaining the importance of monitoring to research and science. MICHAEL UHART - Provide the Sub-Committee on Synthesis data and information not provided previously by the NOAA line offices. The kind of data and information requested will be coordinated with the Chair of the Sub-Committee on Synthesis. The information will be provided to the Sub-Committee by December 31, 1999. SUB-COMMITTEE ON SYNTHESIS - Draft and submit to the full Board at the April 2000 meeting the Terms of Reference for a panel to review the extent of social science and economic research in NOAA. MICHAEL UHART - Draft a memo from Dr. Baker to the laboratory directors, cc: the Assistant Administrators, asking for an update of the educational information. Ensure that the matrix of NOAA education activities previously provided the Issue Group on Education be completed by the line offices and forwarded to the Lead of the Issue Group. SUSAN FRUCHTER - Provide the Executive Director with a list of the strategic planning teams and their leads, including the infrastructure team, for further distribution to the members of the Board. BOARD MEMBERS - Provide the Executive Director with potential topics that they would like the laboratory directors and others to address at future NOAA facility visits. These topics will be considered by the Steering Committee in developing the agenda for the next meeting. MICHAEL UHART- Ask the OAR laboratory directors for the trend in the number of research scientists and an analysis of the impact of operations on research, for further distribution to the Board members. MICHAEL UHART - Draft a reply to Joy Bartholomew of the Estuarine Research Federation (ERF) thanking the ERF for their letter and addressing the ERF request to have one of their presidents appointed to the NOS working group to develop an NOS review process. PENNY DALTON [As a follow-up to her statement to the Board] - Provide a statement to the SAB as to the adverse and/or positive effects that earmarks or line items have on NMFS research programs. It would be helpful to provide specific examples, options for fixing the problem, and suggestions for what the SAB could do about it. LOUISA KOCH - Send to the Executive Director, for distribution to the Board members, the revised Terms of Reference for the Climate and Global Change Working Group. DAVID EVANS – Send to the Executive Director, for distribution to the Board members, information on the current and nominated members of the Climate and Global Change Working Group. The Board would like this information in the form of a matrix with each candidate's name, scientific affiliation (i.e., physicist, biologist, etc.), university affiliation, academic discipline, diversity information (i.e., race, gender, geographic region), and international affiliation. OAR - Draft a proposal and Terms of Reference for a process to review the OAR laboratories and joint institutes. Dr. Stephenson-Hawk volunteered to serve as the SAB member to work with the working group. MICHAEL UHART – Distribute to the Board members the dates and sites for upcoming SAB meetings. Ask Board members for feedback on preferable dates for the November 2000 SAB meeting.