This project will create the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), a proxy organization for the computing research community. The CCC will support visioning activities designed to identify potential major opportunities, set priorities, and establish grand challenges for the computing field. These visioning activities will be based upon proposals by members of the computing research community as well as ideas generated by the CCC itself.
The CCC will be a mechanism to promote continued innovation by enhancing the ability of the computing research community to pursue long-term, computing research goals. Innovations in information technology are responsible for the majority of the gains in economic productivity in the U.S. over the past decade. Underlying those innovations is prior decades of computing research investments, much of it funded by NSF and other government agencies. The CCC will work with the scientific community to formulate research programs to realize large-scale, shared research facilities that change the scope and nature of the field. The CCC will partner with NSF and other funding agencies to open up new sources of funding for initiatives with exceptional long term impacts, to a greater extent than current funding mechanisms permit. This effort will lay the foundation for new ways in which information technology will continue to improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in the U.S. and worldwide.
(CCC) was established in fall 2006 through a Cooperative Agreement between the Computing Research Association (CRA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Its goal is to mobilize the computing research community to articulate long-range research challenges and to build consensus around specific research visions. Highlights of CCC activities include: Sponsored and supported over 20 Visioning Workshops to help frame computing research agendas. Sponsored and supported over 10 Visionary Conference Tracks to encourage "out-of-the-box thinking" in computing research. Sponsored and supported the CIFellows PostDoctoral program to ensure that promising students stayed in the research pipeline. Wrote White Papers describing strategic areas of investment in computing research – cited by OSTP as having "had a clear influence on Administration budget and recruiting decisions and have already sparked collaborations between government, industry, and academia.". Communicated with the computing research community through blog posts, articles, and talks as a way of informing and outreach for the community. Engaged undergraduates in the research community through CS Urge (CS Undergraduate and Graduate Education) – a website. Created the Leadership in Science Policy Institute (LiSPI) to develop a new generation of computing research leadership. Organized a daylong symposium at the Library of Congress entitled "Computing Research that Changed the World" where we described the accomplishments and potential of computing research. Organized the high-profile "Impact of NITRD Symposium" with an outstanding day of fascinating talks and discussion. Through these activities, the CCC has delivered enormous value to the computing research community, the NSF, and the Nation and is now a long-term contributor to the health of computing research. NSF’s return on its investment has been large. The vision of CCC remains to encourage and enable computing research that addresses national challenges and national priorities, while sustaining the health of the discipline. The CCC continues to grow as an authoritative catalyst and enabler of computing research. In turn, the efforts of the CCC will continue to improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in the U.S. and worldwide through more advanced technologies that result from catalyzing the computing research community.
