Category Archives: General Topics

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Exploring and Strengthening Cybersecurity

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Recent technological advances have placed heightened importance on the development of a safer and more secure cyberspace. How can we improve cybersecurity and best prevent cyberattacks? Our reports reinforce the importance of strengthening our computer and communications systems and networks, and recommend strategies for future research.

Foundational Cybersecurity Research: Improving Science, Engineering, and Institutions

Foundational Cybersecurity Research: Improving Science, Engineering, and Institutions

Attaining meaningful cybersecurity presents a broad societal challenge. Its complexity and the range of systems and sectors in which it is needed mean that successful approaches are necessarily multifaceted. Moreover, cybersecurity is a dynamic process involving human attackers who continue to …

Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy

Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy

During the 2016 presidential election, America’s election infrastructure was targeted by actors sponsored by the Russian government. Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy examines the challenges arising out of the 2016 federal election, assesses current technology and standards for …

Decrypting the Encryption Debate: A Framework for Decision Makers

Decrypting the Encryption Debate: A Framework for Decision Makers

Encryption protects information stored on smartphones, laptops, and other devices – in some cases by default. Encrypted communications are provided by widely used computing devices and services – such as smartphones, laptops, and messaging applications – that are used by hundreds of millions of …

Recoverability as a First-Class Security Objective: Proceedings of a Workshop

Recoverability as a First-Class Security Objective: Proceedings of a Workshop

The Forum on Cyber Resilience of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted the Workshop on Recoverability as a First-Class Security Objective on February 8, 2018, in Washington, D.C. The workshop featured presentations from several experts in industry, research, and …

Cryptographic Agility and Interoperability: Proceedings of a Workshop

Cryptographic Agility and Interoperability: Proceedings of a Workshop

In May 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop on Cryptographic Agility and Interoperability. Speakers at the workshop discussed the history and practice of cryptography, its current challenges, and its future possibilities. This publication …

Software Update as a Mechanism for Resilience and Security: Proceedings of a Workshop

Software Update as a Mechanism for Resilience and Security: Proceedings of a Workshop

Software update is an important mechanism by which security changes and improvements are made in software, and this seemingly simple concept encompasses a wide variety of practices, mechanisms, policies, and technologies. To explore the landscape further, the Forum on Cyber Resilience hosted a …

Data Breach Aftermath and Recovery for Individuals and Institutions: Proceedings of a Workshop

Data Breach Aftermath and Recovery for Individuals and Institutions: Proceedings of a Workshop

In January 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted the Workshop on Data Breach Aftermath and Recovery for Individuals and Institutions. Participants examined existing technical and policy remediations, and they discussed possible new mechanisms for better …

Cybersecurity Dilemmas: Technology, Policy, and Incentives: Summary of Discussions at the 2014 Raymond and Beverly Sackler U.S.-U.K. Scientific Forum

Cybersecurity Dilemmas: Technology, Policy, and Incentives: Summary of Discussions at the 2014 Raymond and Beverly Sackler U.S.-U.K. Scientific Forum

Individuals, businesses, governments, and society at large have tied their future to information technologies, and activities carried out in cyberspace have become integral to daily life. Yet these activities – many of them drivers of economic development – are under constant attack from …

At the Nexus of Cybersecurity and Public Policy: Some Basic Concepts and Issues

At the Nexus of Cybersecurity and Public Policy: Some Basic Concepts and Issues

We depend on information and information technology (IT) to make many of our day-to-day tasks easier and more convenient. Computers play key roles in transportation, health care, banking, and energy. Businesses use IT for payroll and accounting, inventory and sales, and research and development. …

Preventing Bullying

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. According to Stopbullying.gov, one in four U.S. children report that they have been bullied at school or online. These free books and resources explore the state of the science on biological and psychosocial consequences of peer victimization and the risk and protective factors that either increase or decrease peer victimization.

Learn what you can do to prevent bullying with our resources for parents, teachers, and students.

Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice

Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice

Bullying has long been tolerated as a rite of passage among children and adolescents. There is an implication that individuals who are bullied must have “asked for” this type of treatment, or deserved it. Sometimes, even the child who is bullied begins to internalize this idea. For many years, …

Building Capacity to Reduce Bullying: Workshop Summary

Building Capacity to Reduce Bullying: Workshop Summary

Bullying – long tolerated as just a part of growing up – finally has been recognized as a substantial and preventable health problem. Bullying is associated with anxiety, depression, poor school performance, and future delinquent behavior among its targets, and reports regularly surface of youth …

Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities

Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities

Mental health and substance use disorders among children, youth, and young adults are major threats to the health and well-being of younger populations which often carryover into adulthood. The costs of treatment for mental health and addictive disorders, which create an enormous burden on the …

Flood Resilience and Recovery

After a flood, the devastation that remains necessitates coordination between multiple industries to rebuild infrastructure, arrange health and social services, and support community recovery. Research on floods and their consequences allows us to offer guidance for preparation and execution of the recovery process. These free reports examine the implications of flooding and recommend actions for future recovery.

Dam and Levee Safety and Community Resilience: A Vision for Future Practice

Dam and Levee Safety and Community Resilience: A Vision for Future Practice

Although advances in engineering can reduce the risk of dam and levee failure, some failures will still occur. Such events cause impacts on social and physical infrastructure that extend far beyond the flood zone. Broadening dam and levee safety …

A Community-Based Flood Insurance Option

A Community-Based Flood Insurance Option

River and coastal floods are among the nation’s most costly natural disasters. One component in the nation’s approach to managing flood risk is availability of flood insurance policies, which are offered on an individual basis primarily through …

Tying Flood Insurance to Flood Risk for Low-Lying Structures in the Floodplain

Tying Flood Insurance to Flood Risk for Low-Lying Structures in the Floodplain

Floods take a heavy toll on society, costing lives, damaging buildings and property, disrupting livelihoods, and sometimes necessitating federal disaster relief, which has risen to record levels in recent years. The National Flood Insurance …

Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 1

Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 1

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is housed within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and offers insurance policies that are marketed and sold through private insurers, but with the risks borne by the U.S. federal …

Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 2

Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 2

When Congress authorized the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in 1968, it intended for the program to encourage community initiatives in flood risk management, charge insurance premiums consistent with actuarial pricing principles, and …

Levees and the National Flood Insurance Program: Improving Policies and Practices

Levees and the National Flood Insurance Program: Improving Policies and Practices

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA) manages the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is a cornerstone in the U.S. strategy to assist communities to prepare for, …

Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative

Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative

No person or place is immune from disasters or disaster-related losses. Infectious disease outbreaks, acts of terrorism, social unrest, or financial disasters in addition to natural hazards can all lead to large-scale consequences for the nation …

Mapping the Zone: Improving Flood Map Accuracy

Mapping the Zone: Improving Flood Map Accuracy

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps portray the height and extent to which flooding is expected to occur, and they form the basis for setting flood insurance premiums and regulating development in the floodplain. …

Reducing Coastal Risk on the East and Gulf Coasts

Reducing Coastal Risk on the East and Gulf Coasts

Hurricane- and coastal-storm-related losses have increased substantially during the past century, largely due to increases in population and development in the most susceptible coastal areas. Climate change poses additional threats to coastal …

Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters: Strategies, Opportunities, and Planning for Recovery

Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters: Strategies, Opportunities, and Planning for Recovery

In the devastation that follows a major disaster, there is a need for multiple sectors to unite and devote new resources to support the rebuilding of infrastructure, the provision of health and social services, the restoration of care delivery …

The Future of Voting in the United States

We live in a nation that is unique in the tremendous importance it places on free speech. Not only does the Constitution forbid official censorship, but it invests our government with the extraordinary responsibility of ensuring that all Americans can be heard. In this context, the ability of the citizenry to participate in elections and have their votes accurately cast and counted is paramount. The 2016 Presidential election was a watershed moment in the history of elections. The election exposed new technical and operational challenges, showed us that citizens must become more discerning consumers of information, and demonstrated that our leaders must speak candidly and apolitically about threats to our election systems.

Our recent report, Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy, examines the challenges arising out of the 2016 federal election, assesses current technology and standards for voting, and recommends steps that the federal government, state and local governments, election administrators, and vendors of voting technology should take to improve the security of election infrastructure. In doing so, the report provides a vision of voting that is more secure, accessible, reliable, and verifiable.

Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy

Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy

During the 2016 presidential election, America’s election infrastructure was targeted by actors sponsored by the Russian government. Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy examines the challenges arising out of the 2016 federal election, assesses current technology and …

Understanding and Preventing Sports-Related Concussions in Youth

In the past decade, few subjects at the intersection of medicine and sports have generated as much public interest as sports-related concussions – especially among youth. If the youth sports community can adopt the belief that concussions are serious injuries and emphasize care for players with concussions until they are fully recovered, then the culture in which these athletes perform and compete will become much safer. Improving understanding of the extent, causes, effects, and prevention of sports-related concussions is vitally important for the health and well-being of youth athletes. The findings and recommendations in our report set a direction for research to reach this goal.

Sports-Related Concussions in Youth: Improving the Science, Changing the Culture

Sports-Related Concussions in Youth: Improving the Science, Changing the Culture

In the past decade, few subjects at the intersection of medicine and sports have generated as much public interest as sports-related concussions – especially among youth. Despite growing awareness of sports-related concussions and campaigns to educate athletes, coaches, physicians, and parents …

Watch the video to learn more about the symptoms of sports-related concussions, as well as the findings and recommendations of the report.

Perspectives on Higher Education for the New Academic Year

21st century careers require highly skilled workers with strong technical knowledge as well as the ability to solve problems, think creatively, work collaboratively and function as lifelong learners. Recent National Academies studies dive into some of today’s most urgent higher education issues. We asked the Study Directors of each of the publications featured below to highlight actionable recommendations for universities and other stakeholders.

“The number of bachelor’s degrees awarded nationally in computer and information science and support services has surged in recent years, increasing by 74 percent between 2009 and 2015, compared to a 16 percent increase in bachelor’s degrees overall. At the same time, interest in computer science courses among majors and non-majors alike has also grown, reflecting the increasing importance of CS skills across disciplines and occupational fields, and in daily life. This report explores the drivers of and potential strategies for responding to this increased demand, noting that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Academic institutions should respond with urgency to the current demand while planning for the future role of CS institution-wide, taking deliberate actions to support diversity in their programs.” — Emily Grumbling, Study Officer

Assessing and Responding to the Growth of Computer Science Undergraduate Enrollments

Assessing and Responding to the Growth of Computer Science Undergraduate Enrollments

The field of computer science (CS) is currently experiencing a surge in undergraduate degree production and course enrollments, which is straining program resources at many institutions and causing concern among faculty and administrators about how best to respond to the rapidly growing demand. …

“The U.S. system of graduate education for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has long served as an international gold standard by preparing researchers to advance the frontiers of discovery. Given major global challenges such as the rapid innovations in the conduct of research, the role of STEM in the workforce and the economy, and the increasingly diverse backgrounds of students seeking advances degrees, how prepared is the system of graduate education to respond to these changes? The report Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century calls for cultural change in academic research, which requires adjusting the incentive systems driven in large part by federal and state funding agencies. The incentives often lack alignment with the ideal, student-centric vision of graduate education called for by the committee, which includes support for diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning environments; a system that provides training for mentors and advisors; time and resources for broad career exploration; and increased mental health services. The committee addressed these critical issues, as well as drawing attention to the need for increased data collection in and research on graduate STEM education programs, and provided a series of recommendations to ensure that all stakeholders in the system understand their role in driving change.” — Layne Scherer, Study Officer

Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century

Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century

The U.S. system of graduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has served the nation and its science and engineering enterprise extremely well. Over the course of their education, graduate students become involved in advancing the frontiers of discovery, as …

“The ‘Branches from the Same Tree’ study explored the impact on students of educational approaches that integrate the humanities and arts with science, engineering, and medicine in higher education. The title of the study is based on a quote from Albert Einstein in which he describes the unity of human knowledge, stating ‘all religions, arts, and sciences are branches from the same tree.’ The study committee found that integrative educational approaches are associated with positive student learning outcomes, including increased critical thinking abilities, higher-order thinking and deeper learning, content mastery, problem solving, teamwork and communication skills, improved visuospatial reasoning, and general engagement and enjoyment of learning. The committee found an incredible groundswell of enthusiasm for integrative educational approaches and catalogued over 200 interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary programs and courses at a diverse array of colleges and universities.” — Ashley Bear, Study Officer

The Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education: Branches from the Same Tree

The Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education: Branches from the Same Tree

In the United States, broad study in an array of different disciplines —arts, humanities, science, mathematics, engineering— as well as an in-depth study within a special area of interest, have been defining characteristics of a higher education. But over time, in-depth study in a major …

“There is a growing concern that the biomedical research enterprise, for all of its many strengths, is beset by several core challenges that undercut its vitality, promise, and productivity and that could diminish its critical role in the nation’s health and innovation in the biomedical industry. This is not a new problem – in fact, reports addressing vulnerabilities in the biomedical research workforce have been issued over the last two decades. The committee for the Next Generation Researchers Initiative investigated conclusions from these earlier reports and identified several impediments to progress over the years. A key impediment has been an absence of shared responsibility for the biomedical research system. Many stakeholders in the system tend to hold the federal government responsible for this system, placing blame for failures at the feet of NIH, the principal funder of biomedical research. Doing so, however, obscures the important role that other organizations, particularly universities, must play in developing and implementing solutions. The committee therefore offered several recommendations specifically for universities, as well as a mechanism for shared oversight of the system.” — Lida Beninson, Study Officer

The Next Generation of Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences Researchers: Breaking Through

The Next Generation of Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences Researchers: Breaking Through

Since the end of the Second World War, the United States has developed the world’s preeminent system for biomedical research, one that has given rise to revolutionary medical advances as well as a dynamic and innovative business sector generating high-quality jobs and powering economic output …

“More than 50% of female faculty and staff in higher education and between 20-50% of female students have experienced sexual harassment. Even when the sexual harassment consists of sexist insults or crude behavior, without any unwanted sexual attention or sexual coercion, it can undermine women’s professional and educational attainment and mental and physical health. To stop the pattern of harassing behavior from impacting the next generation of women, a change to the culture and climate in colleges and universities is needed. This report reviews the research on sexual harassment in academia and details how system-wide changes in higher education can be implemented to prevent and address sexual harassment in education and research settings.” — Frazier Benya, Study Officer

Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Over the last few decades, research, activity, and funding has been devoted to improving the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in the fields of science, engineering, and medicine. In recent years the diversity of those participating in these fields, particularly the participation …

The Role of Science in Criminal Investigation

Science plays a vital but sometimes limited role in criminal investigation. Our reports study the opportunities for and challenges of incorporating science in crime investigation, and identify best practices for improved application. These studies are essential resources for the law enforcement and legal communities.

Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification

Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification

Eyewitnesses play an important role in criminal cases when they can identify culprits. Estimates suggest that tens of thousands of eyewitnesses make identifications in criminal investigations each year. Research on factors that affect the …

Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward

Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward

Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and …

Science Needs for Microbial Forensics: Developing Initial International Research Priorities

Science Needs for Microbial Forensics: Developing Initial International Research Priorities

Microbial forensics is a scientific discipline dedicated to analyzing evidence from a bioterrorism act, biocrime, or inadvertent microorganism or toxin release for attribution purposes. This emerging discipline seeks to offer investigators the …

Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI's Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters

Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI’s Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters

Less than a month after the September 11, 2001 attacks, letters containing spores of anthrax bacteria (Bacillus anthracis, or B. anthracis) were sent through the U.S. mail. Between October 4 and November 20, 2001, 22 individuals developed …

Neuroforensics: Exploring the Legal Implications of Emerging Neurotechnologies: Proceedings of a Workshop

Neuroforensics: Exploring the Legal Implications of Emerging Neurotechnologies: Proceedings of a Workshop

Discussions around the intersection between neuroscience and the law began decades ago. Originally used mostly in death penalty cases, the role of neuroscience has extended to cases involving drugs, assault, burglary, child abuse, rape, fraud, …

Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence: Third Edition

Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence: Third Edition

The Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Third Edition, assists judges in managing cases involving complex scientific and technical evidence by describing the basic tenets of key scientific fields from which legal evidence is typically …

Ballistic Imaging

Ballistic Imaging

Ballistic Imaging assesses the state of computer-based imaging technology in forensic firearms identification. The book evaluates the current law enforcement database of images of crime-related cartridge cases and bullets and recommends ways to …

Proactive Policing: Effects on Crime and Communities

Proactive Policing: Effects on Crime and Communities

Proactive policing, as a strategic approach used by police agencies to prevent crime, is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It developed from a crisis in confidence in policing that began to emerge in the 1960s because of social …

Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence

Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence

Because police are the most visible face of government power for most citizens, they are expected to deal effectively with crime and disorder and to be impartial. Producing justice through the fair, and restrained use of their authority. The …

Forensic Analysis: Weighing Bullet Lead Evidence

Forensic Analysis: Weighing Bullet Lead Evidence

Since the 1960s, testimony by representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in thousands of criminal cases has relied on evidence from Compositional Analysis of Bullet Lead (CABL), a forensic technique that compares the elemental …

The Polygraph and Lie Detection

The Polygraph and Lie Detection

The polygraph, often portrayed as a magic mind-reading machine, is still controversial among experts, who continue heated debates about its validity as a lie-detecting device. As the nation takes a fresh look at ways to enhance its security, can the …

Examining the Causes and Consequences of Incarceration in the United States

The growth of incarceration in the United States during the last four decades has prompted numerous critiques and a growing body of scientific knowledge about what prompted the rise and what its consequences have been for the people imprisoned, their families and communities, and for U.S. society. Our reports examine the examine the body of evidence regarding incarceration rates and its effects, and recommend changes in sentencing policy, prison policy, and social policy.

The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences

The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences

After decades of stability from the 1920s to the early 1970s, the rate of imprisonment in the United States more than quadrupled during the last four decades. The U.S. penal population of 2.2 million adults is by far the largest in the world. …

Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach

Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach

Adolescence is a distinct, yet transient, period of development between childhood and adulthood characterized by increased experimentation and risk-taking, a tendency to discount long-term consequences, and heightened sensitivity to peers and …

Implementing Juvenile Justice Reform: The Federal Role

Implementing Juvenile Justice Reform: The Federal Role

In the past decade, a number of state, local, and tribal jurisdictions have begun to take significant steps to overhaul their juvenile justice systems – for example, reducing the use of juvenile detention and out-of-home placement, bringing …

Deterrence and the Death Penalty

Deterrence and the Death Penalty

Many studies during the past few decades have sought to determine whether the death penalty has any deterrent effect on homicide rates. Researchers have reached widely varying, even contradictory, conclusions. Some studies have concluded that the …

Exploring Vaccination Safety

As vaccine research and development continues to grow, so does the debate regarding vaccination safety and best practices. Our reports review the clinical and biological evidence regarding immunization safety.

The Childhood Immunization Schedule and Safety: Stakeholder Concerns, Scientific Evidence, and Future Studies

The Childhood Immunization Schedule and Safety: Stakeholder Concerns, Scientific Evidence, and Future Studies

Vaccines are among the most safe and effective public health interventions to prevent serious disease and death. Because of the success of vaccines, most Americans today have no firsthand experience with such devastating illnesses as polio or …

Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality

Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality

In 1900, for every 1,000 babies born in the United States, 100 would die before their first birthday, often due to infectious diseases. Today, vaccines exist for many viral and bacterial diseases. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, passed …

Building a National Capability to Monitor and Assess Medical Countermeasure Use During a Public Health Emergency: Going Beyond the Last Mile: Proceedings of a Workshop

Building a National Capability to Monitor and Assess Medical Countermeasure Use During a Public Health Emergency: Going Beyond the Last Mile: Proceedings of a Workshop

During public health emergencies (PHEs) involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear threats or emerging infectious diseases, medical countermeasures (MCMs) (e.g., drugs, vaccines, devices) may need to be dispensed or administered to …

Integrating Clinical Research into Epidemic Response: The Ebola Experience

Integrating Clinical Research into Epidemic Response: The Ebola Experience

The 2014–2015 Ebola epidemic in western Africa was the longest and most deadly Ebola epidemic in history, resulting in 28,616 cases and 11,310 deaths in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The Ebola virus has been known since 1976, when two …

Eliminating the Public Health Problem of Hepatitis B and C in the United States: Phase One Report

Eliminating the Public Health Problem of Hepatitis B and C in the United States: Phase One Report

Hepatitis B and C cause most cases of hepatitis in the United States and the world. The two diseases account for about a million deaths a year and 78 percent of world’s hepatocellular carcinoma and more than half of all fatal cirrhosis. In 2013 …

Priorities for the National Vaccine Plan

Priorities for the National Vaccine Plan

Vaccination is a fundamental component of preventive medicine and public health. The use of vaccines to prevent infectious diseases has resulted in dramatic decreases in disease, disability, and death in the United States and around the world. …

Ranking Vaccines: A Prioritization Framework: Phase I: Demonstration of Concept and a Software Blueprint

Ranking Vaccines: A Prioritization Framework: Phase I: Demonstration of Concept and a Software Blueprint

As a number of diseases emerge or reemerge thus stimulating new vaccine development opportunities to help prevent those diseases, it can be especially difficult for decision makers to know where to invest their limited resources. Therefore, it is …

Ranking Vaccines: A Prioritization Software Tool: Phase II: Prototype of a Decision-Support System

Ranking Vaccines: A Prioritization Software Tool: Phase II: Prototype of a Decision-Support System

SMART Vaccines–Strategic Multi-Attribute Ranking Tool for Vaccines–is a prioritization software tool developed by the Institute of Medicine that utilizes decision science and modeling to help inform choices among candidates for new vaccine …

Ranking Vaccines: Applications of a Prioritization Software Tool: Phase III: Use Case Studies and Data Framework

Ranking Vaccines: Applications of a Prioritization Software Tool: Phase III: Use Case Studies and Data Framework

SMART Vaccines – Strategic Multi-Attribute Ranking Tool for Vaccines – is a prioritization software tool developed by the Institute of Medicine that utilizes decision science and modeling to help inform choices among candidates for new vaccine …

Exploring the Advancing Technology of Warfare

Nations like the United States use their technical expertise and industrial capability to invest in advanced military weapons and support systems. Our reports support continued efforts to prepare for the changing future of warfare.

Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology

Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology

Scientific advances over the past several decades have accelerated the ability to engineer existing organisms and to potentially create novel ones not found in nature. Synthetic biology, which collectively refers to concepts, approaches, and …

Making the Soldier Decisive on Future Battlefields

Making the Soldier Decisive on Future Battlefields

The U.S. military does not believe its soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines should be engaged in combat with adversaries on a “level playing field.” Our combat individuals enter engagements to win. To that end, the United States has used its …

2017-2018 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory: Interim Report

2017-2018 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory: Interim Report

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board (ARLTAB) provides biennial assessments of the scientific and technical quality of the research, development, and analysis programs …

Owning the Technical Baseline for Acquisition Programs in the U.S. Air Force

Owning the Technical Baseline for Acquisition Programs in the U.S. Air Force

While there are examples of successful weapon systems acquisition programs within the U.S. Air Force (USAF), many of the programs are still incurring cost growth, schedule delays, and performance problems. The USAF now faces serious challenges in …

National Security Space Defense and Protection: Public Report

National Security Space Defense and Protection: Public Report

It is not yet 60 years since the first artificial satellite was placed into Earth orbit. In just over a half century, mankind has gone from no presence in outer space to a condition of high dependence on orbiting satellites. These sensors, …

Reliability Growth: Enhancing Defense System Reliability

Reliability Growth: Enhancing Defense System Reliability

A high percentage of defense systems fail to meet their reliability requirements. This is a serious problem for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), as well as the nation. Those systems are not only less likely to successfully carry out their …

Mainstreaming Unmanned Undersea Vehicles into Future U.S. Naval Operations: Abbreviated Version of a Restricted Report

Mainstreaming Unmanned Undersea Vehicles into Future U.S. Naval Operations: Abbreviated Version of a Restricted Report

At the request of the former Chief of Naval Operations, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine appointed an expert committee to assess the potential of unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) in enhancing future U.S. naval …

Force Multiplying Technologies for Logistics Support to Military Operations

Force Multiplying Technologies for Logistics Support to Military Operations

The mission of the United States Army is to fight and win our nation’s wars by providing prompt, sustained land dominance across the full range of military operations and spectrum of conflict in support of combatant commanders. Accomplishing this …

A Threat to America's Global Vigilance, Reach, and Power–High-Speed, Maneuvering Weapons: Unclassified Summary

A Threat to America’s Global Vigilance, Reach, and Power–High-Speed, Maneuvering Weapons: Unclassified Summary

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was asked by the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology and Engineering to assess the threat of high-speed weapons and recommendations to counter the threat. This …