July 23, 2010
Subcommittee Examines Smithsonian Institution’s Unique Opportunity to Strengthen America’s role in Science
(Washington, DC) – The House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Research and Science Education held a hearing Wednesday to examine the Smithsonian Institution’s research and education activities, scientific collections, and its ability to collaborate with federal agencies. While renowned for the world's largest museum complex, the Smithsonian Institution is also a prominent leader in scientific research. For instance, scientists at Smithsonian research centers are using their collections to understand the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem before the oil spill and how climate change is impacting the planet.
“While many Americans know about the Smithsonian’s famous museums and the castle along the National Mall, most people do not know that the Smithsonian Institution receives nearly $800 million a year in federal appropriations, or that over $200 million of that goes toward basic scientific research,” Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) said. “It is appropriate and necessary for Congress to take a more active role in the oversight of the Institution’s activities and long-term plans.”
To fund their research beyond these direct appropriations, which largely go toward salaries and infrastructure costs, institution scientists depend on gifts and regularly compete for grants and contracts from government agencies such as NASA, the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Defense (DOD), and NIH. The Smithsonian Institution employs hundreds of scientists at nine centers, including the Tropical Research Institute in Panama and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In addition to these research activities, the hearing examined the Institution’s strategic plan and how hiring Ms. Claudine Brown as their first ever Director of Education could improve informal science education, public outreach, and access programs. Witnesses also explained how digitizing the Institution’s collection, which includes well over 100 million specimens, could improve both research and education.
“The Smithsonian has one of the largest collections in the world, including over 137 million individual specimens and artifacts,” Lipinski said. “Although federal coordination is a bit more complicated because the Smithsonian is not a part of the Executive Branch, working with other science and education agencies is extremely important if we want to maximize the impact of federal spending.”
Witnesses also discussed the need for better management of federal scientific collections, and supported the recommendations of the 2009 Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections. The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, which the House passed in late May, addressed many of these recommendations through the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), directing that office to develop interagency policies for the management, use, and disposal of federal scientific collections and to create an online clearinghouse for these collections.
Witnesses at the hearing stressed how the Smithsonian Institution’s unique collections and ability to conduct long-term studies, such as the tropical ecosystems research it has been conducting in Panama since 1923, set it apart from both academia and federal research agencies. When combined with its ability to educate the public through its museums and zoo, the Smithsonian Institution continues to carry out founder James Smithson’s final wish: that the Institution be an “establishment for the increase and diffusion of Knowledge among men.”
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