(Executive Summary)

Autonomous centers of excellence address local challenges. Science and engineering advance largely at 'centers of excellence' - physical locations where research and advanced training are carried out, often in collaboration with other centers, institutions, and individuals. Centers of excellence are the key to innovation, and their impor-tance cannot be overestimated. For the S&T capacities of developing nations to grow, therefore, they too should have centers of excellence - whether of local, national, regional, or international status. These centers of excellence do not necessarily have to be created de novo. The bolstering or reform of a country's most promising existing research and development programs can achieve the desired outcome. A key to promoting excellence is a merit-based allocation of resources based on rigorous review, in both deciding on new research projects and evaluating current programs. Given the relatively mod-est scientific capacity of most developing nations, such reviews should ideally include appropriate experts from other nations.

• Centers of excellence - whether of local, national, regional, or international status - should be created, or seriously planned for the near future, in practically every developing nation in order for its S&T capacity to grow. Such centers can serve as the main nodes for individuals or groups charged with enhancing S&T knowledge of national and regional importance.
  
• The centers of excellence should have institutional autonomy; sustainable financial support; knowledgeable and capable leadership; international input; focused research agendas that include interdisciplinary themes, applied research, as well as basic research; technology transfer; peer review as a systemic element; merit-based hiring and promotion policies; and mechanisms for nurturing new generations of S&T talent.
  
• Where such institutions already exist, they should be reinforced or, if necessary, reformed. When reform is indicated, changes should be systemwide and carried out in ways that make the best use of scarce resources (including the local talent).
  
• New scientific and technological research projects should be decided on the basis of input from expert review, with each project and program evaluated both for technical merit and for its potential benefits to society. All existing research programs and centers of excellence can similarly benefit from periodic expert review and evaluation. Techniques for such procedures should include, as appropriate, peer-review teams, relevance-review panels, or benchmarking studies.
  
• Given the relatively modest scientific capacity of most developing nations, their merit reviews should ideally include appropriate experts from other nations. Such involvement of the global research community, pos-sibly through a program of international cooperation among academies of science, engineering, and medicine, can make the merit-review processes in developing nations more effective - not just for particular programs, but in general.

Strong universities are critical for expanding national S&T capacities. The role of universities in the develop-ment of S&T capacities cannot be overstated. Universities educate and train new generations of S&T talent, perform research and development on issues of importance to the nation, and provide an independent source of information on such topics as economic development, agriculture, health, and the environment. National governments in developing nations should make a clear, continued commitment to support and encourage advanced education and research activities within universities, in partnership with independent research institutes and industry. Without an explicit national commitment to strengthening universities, the goals of attaining a critical national capacity in science and technology cannot be achieved.

• National and local governments in developing nations should strengthen higher education with public funds (supplemented with private funds if available) to offer greater opportunities for tertiary education and S&T training to young people in modalities ranging from 'community colleges' (as they are called in the United States) to top-class research-based universities.
  
• National and local governments in developing nations should develop strong partnerships with universities and industry to plan the development of capabilities in science and technology.
  
• Universities should have increased autonomy while seeking to systematically strengthen their ties with regional and international institutions and networks; such links can significantly increase the effectiveness of the universities' S&T efforts.
  
• Research universities should make strong commitments to excellence and the promotion of the open, honest values of science in their activities, incorporating unbiased merit reviews into all of their decisions on people, programs, and resources; they should also have greater interaction with society at large.

Virtual networks of excellence link the scientific talents of entire regions and the globe. An important step toward building centers of excellence will be the creation of 'virtual networks of excellence' (VNE), extending throughout the developing world, with the primary objective of nurturing scientific and engineering talent in mostly 'virtual institutes'. These entities should be relatively small and efficient, and embrace innovative research groups that may be far apart geographically but closely linked via the Internet and anchored in recognized research centers. The virtual institutes created through virtual networks of excellence will work to blend their activities into coherent programs, yet the individual research groups will work in areas of prime interest to their own countries. Successful examples are the Millennium Science Institutes created in several countries by the Millennium Science Initiative with the support of the World Bank.

• Virtual networks of excellence (VNE) - 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 - should be created nationally, regionally, and globally.

National academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine can improve the quality of national S&T programs. National academies as understood here are member-based autonomous institutions, motivated by their commitment to scientific, engineering or medical excellence, in which peers elect new members, elect their officials, and execute agreed-upon work programs for decision-makers in government. The presence of such institutions is extremely important for upholding the quality of S&T activity in a country, for guiding national policies based on science and technology, and for maintaining dialogue with other countries, often through their counterpart academies.

• Every country should have national academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine - member-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.
  
• For those countries without a critical mass of active scientists or engineers, the creation of national academies may not be possible. In such cases, academies should be built on a regional rather than a national basis. The formation of professional societies should also be promoted.
  
• International institutions, such as the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), InterAcademy Panel (IAP), International Council for Science (ICSU), Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences (CAETS), and InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP), should continue to facilitate the formation and strengthening of nascent national and regional academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine. The forceful participation of these international bodies will help new organizations establish the requisite high standards and effective mechanisms of operation.
  
• Academies should actively participate in national and international debates to make the voices of the S&T community heard on a broad range of issues.

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