Europe: Investing in Intelligence

1. FRONTIER SCIENCE AND GRAND CHALLENGES: INVESTING IN HIGH-POTENTIAL INDIVIDUALS AND HIGH-PAYOFF SCIENTIFIC FIELDS Gilbert S. Omenn University of Michigan French Presidency of the EU Symposium Celebrating Frontier Science Paris, 7 October, 2008

2. Europe: Investing in Intelligence “Research and innovation are the main keys to Europe’s development. They are also the most efficient way to respond to the challenges set by Asia’s large emerging economies and to lay the foundation for sustainable development for the entire planet.” ---Nicolas Sarkozy 14 May, 2008

3. Kudos to the EU on the Launch of the Frontiers of Science Program • Investments in young scientists and their individual investigator-initiated projects • Sufficient funding to make a difference • High standards • The “Ideas Program”, complementary to the 7th Framework cooperative networks • Congratulations to those honored today • The rest of the world has noticed!

4. This morning’s headline:French, German Scientists Win Nobel for HIV, Cervical Cancer France's Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier and German virologist Harald zur Hausen have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for 2008, for identifying viruses that cause AIDS and cervical cancer.

5. Aims for the ERC in 2005 HLEG Report • Create a globally competitive European Research Area (Lisbon 2000 Strategy), with international benchmarks • Attract and support the very best talent • Channel funds into new, highly promising research areas with agility and focus—with ICT, biotech, and nano mentioned • Confer status and visibility on European frontier research and teams for institutional and national investment • Generate economic and societal benefits

6. Investing in Frontier Science • Identify exceptional individuals with a passion for discovery and innovation • Take risk for big payoffs, based on excellence • Pose true grand challenge questions • Stimulate over-the-horizon ideas Also: • Provide special resources and standards--instruments (LHC), databases (GenBank), animal models, computational models • Create/incentivize teams for needed scale • Build institutional strengths, while facilitating mobility • Set milestones, track results, test policies: the “science of science management”

7. International Approaches to Frontier Science 1. Identifying Compelling Questions, Grand Challenges, Emerging Fields Approaches: (a) what outstanding investigators propose as individuals; (b) using a group process to stimulate proposals in highlighted areas • Investing in individual researchers – NSF, NIH, HHMI, Keck, DARPA

8. Categories of Grand Challenges • By scientific or engineering field • By multidisciplinary R&D domain • As part of a larger societal need 2006 AAAS Presidential Address: Omenn GS. Grand challenges and great opportunities in science, technology, and public policy. Science Dec 15, 2006; 314:1696-1704

9. “A mathematical problem should be difficult in order to entice us, yet not completely inaccessible, lest it mock at our efforts. It should be to us a guide post on the mazy paths to hidden truths, and ultimately a reminder of our pleasure in the successful solution.” --David Hilbert, Paris, 1900

10. HILBERT’S 23 PUZZLES Classes of problems: • 1-6: mathematical foundations/logic; solutions to 4 and 5 were geometrical. • 7-13 and 17: number theoretical. • 14: algebra • 15-16, 18: geometry and topology • 19-20, 22-23: analysis and differential equations (tied to physics) #21: both analytical and algebraic geometry, solved relatively recently #8: Riemann hypothesis still incompletely solved/part of the Clay Challenge

11. Grand Challenges in Physics & Astronomy: Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos What is dark matter? What is the nature of dark energy? How did the universe begin? Did Einstein have the last word on gravity? What are neutrino masses/how have they shaped the universe? How do cosmic accelerators work/what are they accelerating? U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2001)

12. --David Schramm

13. title Popular Sculpture at NAS, Near Lincoln Memorial

14. Hubble Telescope The importance of instruments---synergies between technologies and science

15. François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire 1694-1778 On ne peut désirer ce qu'on ne connaît pas.You can only desire what you do not yet know.

17. Sustainability in the Chemical Industry Grand Challenges and Research Needs A Workshop Report NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

18. Chemistry and Chemical Engineering for Sustainability Green chemistry, replacing solvents, improving catalysts Life cycle analysis tools and models Toxicologic characterization of all chemical inputs and outputs Renewable chemical feedstocks from various biomass Renewable fuel sources More efficient chemical processing Separation, sequestration, and utilization of carbon dioxide Science literacy at all levels

19. Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences National Research Council NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS

20. Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences • Biogeochemical Cycles • *Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning • Climate Variability • *Hydrologic Forecasting • *Infectious Disease and the Environment • Institutions and Resource Use • *Land-Use Dynamics • Reinventing the Use of Materials

21. “OUR NATION’S ENERGY FUTURE”Project Independence, December 1973 Priorities, in order: • Create technologies for much more efficient combustion of fuels • Enhance recovery from existing oil fields • Create clean coal technologies • Improve efficiency and safety of nuclear fission reactor operations and waste management • Accelerate development of long-term sources---solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear fusion

22. THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES CREATING A DISASTER RESILIENT AMERICA ________________________________________________________________ GRAND CHALLENGES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SUMMARY OF A WORKSHOP OF THE DISASTERS ROUNDTABLE By Patricia Jones Kershaw, National Research Council OCTOBER 28, 2004 WASHINGTON, DC Disaster Roundtable Division of Earth and Life Studies THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS Washington, D.C. www.nap.edu

23. U.N. MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS These goals for peace, security, development, human rights and fundamental freedoms (1990 to 2015) are people-centered, time-bound, and measurable. 1. Eradicate extreme poverty (<$1/day; 1 billion people) and hunger--by 50% • Achieve universal primary education for boys and girls • Promote gender equality and empower women • Reduce child mortality rate before age 5 by 67% • Improve maternal health--reduce mortality ratio by 75% • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases---begin to reverse incidence and spread • Ensure environmental sustainabiity--50% reduction in those without safe drinking water 8. Develop a global partnership for development

24. GRAND CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES (7 Goals, 14 Challenges)—Gates Foundation • Improve childhood vaccines (3) • Create new vaccines (3) • Control insects that transmit agents of disease (2) • Improve nutrition to promote health (1) • Improve drug treatment of infectious diseases (1) • Cure latent and chronic infection (2) • Measure health status accurately and economically (2)

25. It’s a New World in Life Sciences New Biology---New Technology Genome Expression Microarrays Comparative Genomics, Epigenetics, miRNA Gene Regulation Proteomics Bioinformatics Systems Biology Path to predictive, personalized, preventive (P3) healthcare

26. The DNA Pioneers

27. The Historic Weekend of Feb 15-16, 2001

28. U.S. Leaders of the Human Genome Project Eric Lander J. Craig Venter and Francis Collins Ari Patrinos

29. Protein DNA

31. Matthias Ruedi Mathias Mann Aebersold Uhlen Max Planck Institute of Royal Institute Institute of Molecular of Technology, Biochemistry Systems Biology Stockholm Munich Zurich

32. NIH ROADMAP: National Centers for Biomedical Computing Physics-Based Simulation of Biological Structures (SIMBIOS) Russ Altman, PI Informatics for IntegratingBiology and the Bedside (i2b2) Isaac Kohane, PI National Center for Integrative Biomedical Informatics (NCIBI) Brian D. Athey, PI National Alliance for Medical Imaging Computing (NA-MIC) Ron Kikinis, PI The National Center For Biomedical Ontology (NCBO) Mark Musen, PI Multiscale Analysis of Genomic and Cellular Networks (MAGNet) Andrea Califano, PI Center for Computational Biology (CCB) Arthur Toga, PI

33. Multi- and Interdisciplinary Research will be Required to Solve the “Puzzle” of Complex Diseases and Conditions Genes Behavior Diet/Nutrition Infectious agents Environment Society ???

35. Synthetic Biology, an Emerging Field Interdisciplinary science and engineering to design and build novel biological functions and systems to: • Gain insights into what makes life tick, constructing genetic circuits to achieve what nature evolved over eons • Develop powerful biotechnologies by integrating biological components, circuits and replicating organisms Applications: • Engineered microorganisms that produce drugs • Biosensors for detecting abnormalities and diseases • Microorganisms that convert renewable resources into energy carriers • Microorganisms to remediate hazardous material contaminated sites Safety regimens will be critical.

36. Presidential Young Investigators Awards—National Science Foundation • The NSF is the broadest and most basic research agency in the United States • Individual investigator grants are the bedrock • The Presidential Young Investigators (PYI) Award was a five-year, no-strings-attached research grant to outstanding young scientists and engineers who showed exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of knowledge. The cornerstone of the program was that NSF funds be matched by private or industrial sources. • One of its influences was the establishment of academic departments of computer sciences and engineering. • PECASE, Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers at the frontiers of knowledge (20/yr)

37. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators • Emphasis on individuals, not projects • Encouraged to “pursue the science”, be bold & daring • In “emerging fields” of genetics, immunology, structural biology, neuro and visual sciences; systems/ computational biology recently added • Multi-year awards with renewal, HHMI mentoring, and spectacular peer group • 340 HHMI researchers currently employed at 64 universities, including 12 Nobel laureates and 124 members of the National Academy of Sciences • 56 new in 2008, from >1000 applications • Build a group of 10-25 students, post-docs, technicians • 2008 niches: Early Career Scientists (own labs 2-6 yrs) International Research Scholars

38. NIH Director’s Pioneer and Innovator Awards, part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research In response to increasingly conservative peer review for the 47,000 current research grants, the NIH has experimented with special grant competitions that seek unusually innovative and/or cross-disciplinary proposals • In 5 years, 63 Pioneer Awards ($2.5M over 5 yrs): “bold ideas and inventive technologies” • In 2 years, 61 New Innovator Awards ($1.5M over 5 yrs) • Pan-NIH review group; thousands of applicants, as with ERC competition • 38 “Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration” (EUREKA) grants, Sept 2008

39. Keck Futures Initiative Program • 15 yr program administered by National Academies of Science, Eng’g, Medicine • Annual multidisciplinary topic chosen for high potential to spark discovery • About 100 outstanding researchers invited for 3 day conference after extensive preparation and tutorials • Grants available to pursue ideas and collaborations generated at the conference

40. Keck Futures Conference Themes 2003: Signals, Decision, and Meaning in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering 2004: Designing Nanostructures at the Interface of Biomedical and Physical Systems 2005: The Genomic Revolution—Implications for Treatment and Control of Infectious Disease 2006: Smart Prosthetics: Exploring Assistive Devices for Body and Mind 2007: The Future of the Human Healthspan: Demography, Evolution, Medicine, BioEng’g 2008: Complexity

41. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) • Top-down program manager model for innovative goal-oriented R&D: free-wheeling zealots, technically outstanding, 3-5 yr rotations • Admirable record since 1958 leading to Internet, graphical user interfaces, global positioning systems, and many other outputs of long-term university-based work • Complete acceptance of failure if payoff high • Model for E-ARPA and H-ARPA • Complaints recently of more short-term and more classified research at DARPA

42. “The Quiet Crisis”---Shirley Ann Jackson, 2005 AAAS Presidential Address • Projected extreme shortages of well-prepared women and men to pursue careers in science and engineering, just as the knowledge-based world economy demands high skills • Broad investments are needed, not just for the most exceptional individuals

43. The Global Scientific Community • People are mobile, seek opportunities • “The World is Flat”—Tom Friedman • Academies of Science around the world • EU-US Agreement for S&T Cooperation • Innocentive Inc---problems for scientists or engineers to solve, with payoffs from $5K to $100K, through the Internet for companies, Rockefeller Foundation, others • Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability

44. Prizes can stimulate discovery--- and cause controversy

45. Louis Pasteur 1822-1995 Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.

46. Human Frontier Science Program • Launched by Japanese scientists and government in mid-1980s • Proposed at Venice Economic Summit, 1987 by PM Nakasone • Implemented in 1989 in Strasbourg by G7, EU, Switzerland, Austria, Korea, NZ • Global collaboration and post-doc training in new fields and new labs/countries • In 15 yrs, 59 nationalities supported

47. The Instructive Case of Richard Muller, of Lawrence-Berkeley National Lab • NSF Waterman Award for outstanding scientific achievements before age 35 (1978) • Groundbreaking work in three areas—astrophysics, optics, radio-dating The projects were so far beyond conventional wisdom and methods that his peer-reviewed proposals had been rejected that year by four agencies! Supported by his National Laboratory chief. Recommended to Congress that divergent peer reviews be given special emphasis.

48. Summary of Challenges for the ERC • To sustain the career progress of Starter Grant recipients • To take risks in peer review • To be a “learning organization” • To generate benefit for those not awarded grants • To make the whole > the sum of parts by stimulating coalescence in emerging fields and productive interdisciplinary interactions • To attract scientists from around the world to European laboratories • To translate the passion for discovery in all fields into societal benefits

49. “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask, why?... I dream of things that never were, and ask, why not?” --Robert F. Kennedy (1968)

50. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1881-1955 The future belongs to those who give the next generation hope.