9634342 Uhlir The globalization of science is occurring in parallel with a rapid extension in the speed and sophistication of information and data handling technologies and in their uses 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 become a major international enterprise in its own right, one that is vital to those scientific programs. The Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) is a non-governmental, multilateral body affiliated with the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). CODATA's principal objective is to facilitate worldwide communication on problems relevant 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 this function in the United States. A U.S. National Committee for CODATA, which is comprised of non-governmental scientists, coordinates U.S. participation in the international body, with NAS serving as its secretariat. This award will provide partial support to the NAS to continue to manage U.S. participation in CODATA, including partial payment of dues and partial support for the activities of the U.S. National Committee. Additional support is also being sought from several other Federal agencies: DoE, NASA, NIH and NIST.
