Research Priorities for Airborne Particulate Matter IV. Continuing Research Progress (2004) / Chapter Skim
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6 The Way Forward
6 The Way Forward
Pages 150-165
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From page 150... ...
There is increasing multidisciplinary exchange involving epidemiologists, toxicologists, exposure assessors, and atmospheric scientists on how best to integrate the work of the various disciplines. A new national monitoring system has been installed that is beginning to provide data on ambient concentrations of PM2.5 across the United States, and the sites will soon provide additional detail on particle characteristics across the country.
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From page 151... ...
In this chapter, the committee provides guidance on scientific management issues that it expects to be relevant for successfully addressing key priorities for PM research in the future. These issues need to be addressed if the questions identified for continuing research in the previous chapters are to be answered successfully and in a timely fashion.
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From page 152... ...
At the same time, continuing challenges remain for EPA and for the broader scientific community in accomplishing the kind of sustained, creative management that will be necessary to complete the PM research program outlined in the first two reports. The remainder of this chapter pursues the following objectives: · Briefly review progress to date at EPA.
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From page 153... ...
Progress included establishment of a formal management structure for PM research, including a top official of EPA's ORD and a national program director for EPA'sPMresearchprogramtomanagetheentireintramuralandextramural researchprogram;developmentandimplementationofamultiyearresearch budget; implementing a dramatically expanded monitoring system, including the first nationwide speciated network at over 50 sites; refocusing of key requests for applications for STAR1 grants to address the priorities set forth in this committee's portfolio; and integration of intramural and extramural efforts in some key areas, especially addressing the elements of the committee's topic 1 (that is, personal, indoor, and outdoor exposures)
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From page 154... ...
The functions to be filled by the research will require the sustained appointment of individuals who can, at a minimum, provide sensitive leadership, maintain communication andcoordinationamongagencypersonnelandinvestigatorsinaprogressive research agenda, serve as a focal point for communication across the government and outside the government, and redirect the research agenda as needed. · Modern Management Tools: Sustained leadership from talented managers alone will not be sufficient to ensure that a complex research program, involving people from many disciplines working in multiple laboratories in government, academic, and private institutions, is managed in an efficient and effective manner.
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From page 155... ...
· Administrative Flexibility to Deploy Resources: Any successful research program must have the ability to pursue a mix of research approaches,withinvestigator-initiatedresearchtocapturethefullestcreativity of the scientific community balanced with more structured research strategies in key areas where systematic approaches across diverse laboratories and disciplines will be necessary. Through the STAR program, EPA has done much to improve its efforts to fund investigator-initiated research (NRC 2003)
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From page 156... ...
The committee previously commented that emissions tracking, air quality modeling, and ambient monitoring activities should be viewed as a set of integrated processes, each component supporting the others. Those activities will need to be given some prominence within EPA's research program to facilitate continuous improvement in each of those areas.
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From page 157... ...
Outside scientists should be involved from the outset, most likely through a steering or coordinating committee for this topic that draws on both intramural scientists, including health researchers and exposure and monitoring experts, and extramural scientists from the full range of appropriate disciplines and institutions. · Developing Future Human Resources: Accomplishing this objective requires not only talented leadership at the top but also development and renewal of trained investigators prepared to work in the required multidisciplinary arenas to meet the key scientific challenges identified in Chapter 5.
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From page 158... ...
) recommended that the Supersites Program be designed from the start as an integrated program that could meet the needs of multiple monitoring technology, modeling, exposure assessment, and health.
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From page 159... ...
supported by the California Air Resources Board and coordinated with the Fresno Supersite) , none of them has gone beyond information sharing and descrip 2NARSTO, formerly known as The North American Research Strategy for Tropospheric Ozone, is a multiple stakeholder body organized in 1994 with financial support from the public and private sectors to sponsor public- and privatesector policy-related research on tropospheric ozone and PM.
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From page 160... ...
The committee recommends that the following additional steps be taken to improve interagency research coordination: · Establish multiagency and agencywide research goals and measures for determining the degree of success in meeting these national goals. · Prepare a multiyear plan for PM research across agencies that states specific research strategies and priorities for achieving PM research goals, provides a staged transition to integrating those goals into a multipollutant approach, and incorporates state and private activities into the federal program.
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From page 161... ...
The completion of this committee's task through the issuance of this report does not complete the need for ongoing PM research, nor is the task ofindependently reviewingPMresearchplansandresultsfinished. Beyond those tasks, the need to move this research agenda increasingly toward a multipollutant approach for health effects and to better inform implementation strategies poses new challenges and opportunities.
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From page 162... ...
There are several ways in which such an ongoing independent mechanism might be established, but several of the principles followed in establishing the current committee could help guide that process. These principles include the following: · A committee representing a diversity of scientific skills, experience in research management, knowledge of policy development, and varied institutional affiliations.
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From page 163... ...
Perhaps more important, no equivalent effort has been made to develop and maintain a database of all newly published PM research from all relevant fields, including health, exposure, and atmospheric chemistry. Although a catalog of the manuscripts included in the criteria document was developed, that catalog, although machine-readable, is not maintained in a searchable database with key aspects and results of the studies included.
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From page 164... ...
Types of models for such efforts include the much larger Medline database or a more modest searchable database using readily available software to identify publications that address specific aspects of PM research, such as PM exposure in older subgroups. Improving Information Synthesis In addressing its charge of gauging research progress, the committee needed to develop an approach for synthesizing research findings.
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From page 165... ...
. The body of scientific evidence on PM and other air pollutants is only likely to grow in scope and complexity, and whether future decisions concern NAAQS or setting priorities for control strategies, they will demand enhanced tools and a protocol for assessing and synthesizing the evidence.
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