Testifies before House Science Committee
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On March 14 Professor Christopher Hill testified before the Subcommittee on Environment, Technology and Standards of the House of Representative's Science Committee. The subcommittee was discussing the annual budget reauthorization of the Department of Commerce's Advanced Technology Program, a program within the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) that provides cost-shared funding of research projects carried out in partnership with industry and universities.
The Advanced Technology Program, or ATP, funds research projects that address technologies for which there is a clear market need but has insufficient technical understanding to make it worth a company's investment. It was one of a series of legislative actions during the 1980s asserting that collaboration among industry, academia and government offered the best way to address the nation's competitive challenges at home and abroad.
Professor Hill's testimony included his views on a new report about the ATP, which made a number of recommendations for reform aimed at improving the ATP and responding to some of its critics.
"In my view," Hill said, "The most important reform that could be made in improving ATP would be to give it a multi-year authorization and an assurance of appropriations to follow."
For the last five years Hill,
who is a full professor of public policy, has served as vice-provost for
research at GMU. His seeks to stimulate, facilitate, represent and regulate
research across the university system and helps faculties, deans, and
center directors look for research opportunities. He oversees the Office
of Sponsored Programs, the Office of Technology Transfer, and the Assistant
Director of Compliance. Recently the Board of Directors of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science appointed Hill to a three-year
appointment on the Annual Meeting Program committee. He will help plan
and implement the association's annual meeting in Denver in February 2003.