Center of excellence: a research program managed by a university, an advanced research institute, or operating independently, typically in one geographical location, and deemed by merit review to be of the highest international quality in personnel, infrastructure, and research output.
Digital libraries: collections of information - originally in the form of printed books, journals, and monographs; databases; photographs, motion pictures, and videos; sound recordings; and digital format - made accessible to everyone, everywhere in electronic format through organized sites on the World Wide Web.
Intellectual property rights: rights awarded by society to individuals or organizations over inventions, literary and artistic works; and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce, giving the titleholders the right to prevent others from making unauthorized use of their property for a limited period.
Millennium Development Goals: a global agenda agreed upon by leaders of national governments assembled at the United Nations Millennium Summit of September 2000, identifying specific goals for addressing the following issues: extreme hunger and poverty, universal primary education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, infectious diseases, environmental sustainability, and global partnerships for development.
Millennium Science Initiative: an international program (with major funding from the World Bank) for building S&T capacity through (1) competitively selected MSI Institutes and smaller 'nuclei,' centers of excellence located within existing institutions; (2) a Global Science Corps that sends scientists from S&T-advanced and S&T-proficient countries to train and collaborate with their counterparts in S&T-developing and S&T-lagging countries; and (3) infrastructure enhancement, especially for instrumentation and information/communications technology.
Merit review: an evaluation of a research program, performed by experts unaffiliated with the program under review, assessing the program's technical merit and potential benefits to society, incorporating such techniques as peer review teams, relevance -review panels, or benchmarking studies.
National academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine: merit-based autonomous institutions, in which peers elect new members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing professional achievements, elect their own officials, perform programs of independent work, and inform the general public and national decisionmakers on science and technology aspects of public policies.
Research and development: basic (or fundamental) research, driven primarily by a desire to know; strategic research, driven by a desire to know and its potential use; applied research, driven primarily by its potential use; adaptive research, undertaken to adapt a given product or technology to local conditions; and development, undertaken to create new products and services.
S&T-advanced country: a country with scientific and technological strength in most research areas and a substantial S&T enterprise in personnel, infrastructure, investment, institutions, and regulatory framework.
S&T-proficient country: a country with scientific and technological strength in several research areas and a growing S&T capacity in all aspects, including personnel, infrastructure, investment, institutions, and regulatory framework.
S&T-developing country: a country with scientific and technological strength in one or more research areas, but generally lacking important aspects of S&T capacity in personnel, infrastructure, investment, institutions, and regulatory framework.
S&T-lagging country: a country with little scientific or technological research strengths and no discernable overall S&T capacity in personnel, infrastructure, investment, institutions, and regulatory framework.
Science and technology: the full range of scientific, engineering, and health fields and disciplines, including aeronautics and astronautics; agricultural sciences; anthropology; biology; brain and cognitive sciences; chemical engineering; chemistry; civil and environmental engineering; earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences; economics; electrical engineering and computer science; systems engineering; health sciences and technology; materials science and engineering; mathematics; mechanical engineering; nuclear engineering; physics; political science; psychology; and sociology.
Science and technology capacity: the available personnel, infrastructure, investment, institutions, and regulatory framework in a country to generate activities and acquire scientific knowledge and technological capabilities for addressing with competence and creativity local, national, and international needs.
Sectoral funds: a portion of a nation's tax levies on for-profit corporations redirected into a special fund for financing the conduct of research in selected science and technology areas of economic interest to the nation.
Virtual institute: a set of research programs undertaken by research personnel located in different geographical locations, communicating and collaborating primarily via new technologies such as the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Virtual network of excellence: a set of research programs jointly sponsored and conducted by research institutes in different geographical locations, with research personnel communicating and collaborating primarily via new technologies such as the Internet and the World Wide Web, deemed by merit review to be of the highest international quality in personnel, infrastructure, and research output.