The study will address long-standing and sometimes contentious issues concerning the federal government s ability to accurately project future supplies and demands for scientific and engineering personnel with particular attention on the doctoral-level workforce. The adequacy of the United States technical workforce to meet the needs of federal programs (e.g., in defense, energy, space and health research), as well as the broader needs of an open technological economy, have been the focus of policy concerns by the federal government for many decades. The situation has become even more confusing in recent years because of the confluence of many contradictory trends that influence both supplies and demands for such human resources (e.g., the end of the Cold War and growing international economic competitiveness). This study will address the need to improve our ability to make more accurate long-term projections of the technical workforce and, perhaps as important, a need to develop better means for integrating such information into public and private decision-making at all levels of our society. A 12-member committee will be formed to carry out this study over an 18-month period. The committee will be composed of a balanced membership of individuals including labor-market economists, other social scientists knowledgeable about the broader social implications of being able to make (and use) effective long-range workforce projections, and public policy representatives with experience in dealing with the needs of high-level policy officials in the Congress and the executive branch
