I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1067 

To establish a Federal coordination and planning process for advanced 

research instrumentation and facilities. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 15, 2007 

Mr. BAIRD introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Science and Technology, and in addition to the Committee on Education and Labor, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 

Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 

the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To establish a Federal coordination and planning process 

for advanced research instrumentation and facilities. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds the following: 

5 (1) Instruments are the key to the advancement 

6 of scientific and engineering research and the devel7 opment of new and improved technologies. 

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1 (2) The need for specialized instruments has 

2 become broader, crossing scientific and engineering 

3 disciplines. 

4 (3) Research progress in interdisciplinary fields 

5 increasingly relies on the availability of advanced in6 struments, or systems of instruments, that require 

7 highly specialized knowledge and training for their 

8 proper operation and use. 

9 (4) A committee of the National Academy of 

10 Sciences has recommended that Federal research 

11 agencies place greater emphasis on developing for12 mal mechanisms to support access by researchers to 

13 advanced instruments that exceed the cost of instru14 ments that can be acquired under normal research 

15 grants and that require special support arrange16 ments for their operation and use. 

17 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

18 In this Act: 

19 (1) ADVANCED RESEARCH INSTRUMENTATION

20 AND FACILITIES.—The term ‘‘advanced research in21 strumentation and facilities’’ means instrumentation 

22 that is used for research, including collections of 

23 closely related or interacting instruments, networks 

24 of sensors, databases, and cyber infrastructure and 

25 that is commonly acquired by large-scale centers or 

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1 research programs rather than by individual inves2 tigators. 

3 (2) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

4 the Director of the Office of Science and Technology 

5 Policy. 

6 SEC. 3. COORDINATION. 

7 The Director shall use the National Science and 

8 Technology Council as a forum for coordination and col9 laboration among Federal agencies in developing best 

10 practices for the support of advanced research instrumen11 tation and facilities at academic institutions, and shall en12 courage the development of centralized programs for sup13 port of advanced research instrumentation and facilities 

14 at all Federal research agencies that sponsor research at 

15 academic institutions. This forum shall also provide advice 

16 to the Director in developing advanced research instru17 mentation and facilities policies in accordance with section 

18 4. 

19 SEC. 4. POLICY FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH INSTRUMENTA20 TION AND FACILITIES. 

21 The Director shall develop and implement policies for 

22 Federal support for advanced research instrumentation 

23 and facilities, which shall include— 

24 (1) consistent policies among Federal agencies 

25 for the support of the operations and maintenance 

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1 costs of advanced research instrumentation and fa2 cilities acquired in whole or in part from Federal 

3 funding sources, including policies to encourage and 

4 support the career development of technical research 

5 support staff for instrumentation; 

6 (2) guidelines for the appropriate balance in 

7 Federal funding for research at academic institu8 tions between research project support and the ac9 quisition, operations and maintenance of advanced 

10 research instrumentation and facilities; and 

11 (3) policy and procedures for support by mul12 tiple Federal agencies, including joint grant solicita13 tions, for advanced research instrumentation and fa14 cilities that would be useful for multiple fields of re15 search and relevant to the research goals of multiple 

16 Federal agencies. 

17 SEC. 5. REPORT. 

18 The Director shall provide a report describing the co19 ordination activities carried out in accordance with section 

20 3 and the status of the development and implementation 

21 of policies and guidelines called for under section 4 to the 

22 Committee on Science of the House of Representatives 

23 and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpormstockstill on PROD1PC66 with BILLS

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1 tation of the Senate not later than 1 year after the date 

2 of enactment of this Act. 

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