Summary of New Business Practices Implemented by the Science and Technology Program
1. Enhancing Our Customer Focus - Improved communication and involvement of end-users, stakeholders, and Reclamation management
To ensure we are in close alignment with Reclamation's mission, we're placing more emphasis than ever on becoming more client and stakeholder focused. We've expanded the membership of our steering team to involve other water research agencies and stakeholders and strengthened the team's role in prioritizing and guiding funding allocations in an effort to place emphasis on Reclamation's most critical priorities. In addition, we are creating new opportunities to work with water districts, hosting research workshops with water users and water managers, improving coordination with other federal and state water resource research agencies, improving our web page to conduct business and disseminate information on our program, activities, and other useful sources of science and information.
We're also actively working to keep Reclamation management well informed on our activities, accomplishments, and capabilities through an increase in direct communication and distribution of our monthly and bi-annual highlights across Reclamation.
2. Becoming More Outcome Oriented - Developed a Science and Technology Program roadmap that defines key R&D3 Output Areas and identifies how they strategically link to, and focus on, Reclamation's mission objectives of water and power deliveries.
3. Aligning Objectives with Resources - Established an annual broad, competitive call for proposals to ensure we are considering the best proposals, ideas, and people. Developed a proposal evaluation methodology to ensure close alignment of work efforts with Reclamation objectives. Improved coordination of water resources research with other federal and non-federal agencies to better focus their efforts on our water management needs and to supplement our applied research and development.
4. Engaging the R&D and Deployment Concept - Taking a longer term view of our contribution that begins with applied research and ends with technology deployment at Reclamation projects.
Demonstration and deployment, in collaboration with resource managers, must occur for results to be more widely accepted, supported, and integrated into improved water and facility management practices. Laying the foundation for this technology transfer must begin in the early stages of research by encouraging our researchers to plan an effective approach to engage end-users in a manner that best promotes investment in the rapid, reliable utilization of beneficial research results. We also recognize that demonstration and deployment can be accelerated through early partnership development with private industry and are encouraging collaboration here as well.
5. Increasing Resource Leveraging - Creating and strengthening research partnerships and collaborative efforts to better leverage our resources, and focus outside expertise on Reclamation's mission and needs.
Strong emphasis is being placed on partnership building. We are seeking better leveraging of S&T funds and services with other federal and non-federal resources. We're encouraging researchers to cultivate partnerships and funding sources outside of our program and outside of Reclamation.
Although we only focus on Reclamation mission objectives, we are pursuing an increase in collaboration with industry on our innovations that may have commercial value. The Technology Transfer Act of 1986 authorizes and encourages industry partnerships via Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) and licensing of Reclamation-owned intellectual property. Through partnerships with industry to advance our innovations, we facilitate our demonstration and deployment objectives by creating reliable manufacturing sources to serve our water managers.
6. Strengthening Reclamation's Competencies - Encouraging more cross-discipline collaboration across the Technical Service Center (TSC) and with Reclamation staff in the regions and area offices.
In order to better develop Reclamation's technical competencies and its responsiveness to future needs, we are working with Reclamation's TSC more as a partner than a customer. The majority of S&T funding will primarily be invested in the TSC to build and maintain the mission-specific expertise that can broadly serve Reclamation into the future. The Reclamation-wide call for proposals more openly engages others in Reclamation to work in partnership with TSC expertise. In addition, our emphasis on customer focus and increased partnerships encourages an increase in business thinking and interpersonal skill development.