State legislators and executives determine the state's priorities and expenditures in education, energy, security, transportation, natural resources, healthcare, and many other areas, but most policymakers simply cannot effectively assess all the choices posed by science and technology or recognize many of the problems they could solve. Government officials have faced several topics with significant technical components in recent years, such as the regulation, control, and generation of energy; intellectual property policy; and bioethics, among other things. These are complicated issues involving cutting-edge research and having substantial or potentially substantial policy and fiscal impacts on the state.

CCST's mandate is to help inform policymakers about such issues and to enable them to pursue an evidence-based decision making process. During the past year, CCST has worked closely and helped translate analysis into positive policy action. In some cases, CCST has been able to identify issues about which state officials may not have been aware. Our analysis of the Department of Energy and NASA funded federal laboratories, California's Federal Laboratories: A State Resource, highlighted the largely unrecognized collective impact of these facilities on California in a variety of ways, and made state officials aware of a conflict between state and federal contracting procedures which impeded the state's ability to access the expertise of these laboratories. We are very pleased that, almost immediately upon the release of this report, state lawmakers proposed legislation to address the conflict and enable California to make use of the research capabilities of these facilities.

But while it is necessary for the state to be able to react to new information, informed policy must involve planning as well. In the past year, CCST has responded to requests to proactively analyze two policy issues: that of intellectual property policy and bioethics. For the intellectual property policy, CCST was requested to convene a study group to explore a possible IP policy framework for the state, as well as for the newly formed California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The study group released its final report in January 2006, leading to legislation that would, if passed, create the first comprehensive state-level IP policy framework in the country. For bioethics, Assembly Member Lori Saldaña, chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Bioethics, approached CCST to assist in identifying issues which a state council on bioethics might consider, and in identifying experts who might be appropriate to serve on or advise such a group.

And most recently, Governor Schwarzenegger has requested that CCST develop recommendations for the state to address a response to the educational and economic issues recently highlighted by the National Academies report Rising Above the Gathering Storm to ensure the vitality of Califonia's science and technology sector.

It is not CCST's role to formulate policy, but to inform policymaking. In the case of the IP and bioethics analyses, CCST was asked not only to answer technical questions, but to help determine what questions would be appropriate to discuss. We are very pleased that the Governor, the Legislature, and state agencies are approaching CCST for input at increasingly early stages of discussing the many science and technology policy related issues affecting California. It is a genuine fulfillment of our mandate to advise the state effectively, and one which we look forward to continuing and building upon in the years to come.