Linking Lawmakers, Scientific Knowledge
Grant to Fund Source for Data on Terrorism

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 9, 2004; Page A19

Congress will get a new source for information on the science of terrorism and national security under a $2.25 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

The money will go to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and is designed to make it into a link between policymakers in need of scientific information and academics who might have it.

"We've heard a lot about how policymakers need advice on scientific issues related to terrorism," said Kennette M. Benedict, director of international peace and security for the MacArthur Foundation. "This is not so much about building capacity in this field, but in how to get the information to policymakers in a form they can use."

The new AAAS initiative will try to fill some of the void created when Congress abolished the Office of Technology Assessment eight years ago. Although the new center will not have a formal status like the technology office, Benedict said, it will try to offer similarly independent and nonpartisan scientific information.

"Lawmakers are often looking for authoritative and trustworthy information, and the center will connect them with it," she said. MacArthur is also providing $4.5 million this year to 15 universities around the world to research scientific aspects of the threats from biological, chemical and nuclear materials.

According to Frank von Hippel, former assistant director for national security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the AAAS center would fill an obvious need.

"Congress used to have an in-house operation where policymakers could task a group of technical people, and through them a whole network of specialists, with technical problems they were having a hard time getting a handle on," he said. "This is an effort to bridge the gap."