ABSTRACT
The effectiveness of the organizational machinery to provide it depends on the context in which it operates. The time has long passed, however, for recasting National Science Foundation (NSF) into an effective central leadership agency for Federal interests in science and technology. Institutional continuity is important for science and technology policy and leadership. Thus, evaluation of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and consideration of the ways in which it might evolve entail the broader questions of the mode of operations of the Executive Office as a whole and the organization of the science and technology activities of the Executive Branch. The most critical shortcoming of the current OSTP concept is that it fails to provide institutional continuity for science and technology advice in the Executive Office and policy leadership in the Executive Branch. The time has long passed, however, for recasting NSF into an effective central leadership agency for Federal interests in science and technology.
