The globalization of science is occurring in parallel with a rapid expansion in the speed and sophistication of information and data handling technologies, and their use for scientific purposes. Developments in these areas permit the planning and execution of large scale scientific programs. Such programs, in turn, frequently require sophisticated data handling and processing techniques. In view of the multilateral character of many large scale scientific programs, the handling, processing, and transmission of scientific data has a major international enterprise in its own right, one that is vital to those large scale programs. The Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) is a non-governmental, multilateral body, affiliated with the Interna- tional Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), whose principal objective is to facilitate worldwide communication on problems related to scientific data. Like other members of the ICSU family, CODATA is comprised of non-governmental National Member Organizations. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) fulfills that function in the United States. In the past, NAS's request to support US participation in CODATA has been limited to payment of dues, shared jointly by NSF, NIST, and DOE. The NAS, in order to upgrade US participation, has established a U.S. National Committee (USNC) for CODATA similar to those that guide U.S. participation in the ICSU unions; it proposes to establish a core program based on tht committee that would be managed by a full-time NAS professional. NSF is being asked to support 30 percent of that core program (along with NIST and DOE), and pay one-third of the $40,000 US annual dues for CODATA.
