Office of Science Moving to More Autonomy for Labs, Official Says

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science is moving to give more autonomy to national laboratories from headquarters on management and budget decisions, a DOE official yesterday told the panel tasked with reviewing the labs. The Congressionally-mandated Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories at a meeting in Alexandria, Va. yesterday probed DOE officials on improvements being implemented at the labs. Office of Science Deputy Director for Science Programs Patricia Dehmer told the panel: “We are moving towards funding the laboratories with larger lots of money in order to give the laboratory management the flexibility to make decisions. At headquarters we should not be managing on the postdoc level. And you will anecdotal hear stories of managing at half the postdoc level, and it happens, but we are trying to move away from it.”

National Nuclear Security Administration Officials said they are focusing on strengthening communication and collaboration with the labs and contractors. “From our perspective, really developing and viewing the relationship, regardless of the legal framework, as a partnership is essential,” NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Anne Harrington told the panel. She added: “The [Federally Funded Research and Development Center] concept here is absolutely essential to making this work in the long term, because if you can’t regard each other as partners and as co-contributors to every step of the process, starting with strategic vision on through, then ultimately the relationship will break down. We’ve seen some of that and are now in a very serious rebuilding mode.”