Having argued that indigenous science and technology (S&T) capacity is essential for a country's meaningful participation in the global economy, the Study Panel identified in this report several actions needed to achieve favorable outcomes. In particular, the five clusters of recommendations presented in Chapters 2 through 6 should be implemented. The question then becomes: Who will bring about the desired changes? Which 'principal actors' should play what roles? And what should each of them do so that the overall effect of their individual contributions - in building new programs and reforming existing programs - is potentially greater than the sum of the parts?

The Study Panel has identified the following twelve principal actors:

• S&T-proficient countries;
• S&T-lagging countries;
• S&T-advanced countries;
• United Nations agencies and regional intergovernmental organizations;
• Educational, training, and research institutions;
• National academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine;
• National, regional, and International S&T organizations;
• International development-assistance organizations;
• Foundations;
• Local, national, and international private sectors (for-profit entities);
• Nongovernmental organizations;
• The media.

Each of these players should undertake an individually tailored program of actions appropriate to its own role, based on the recommendations of this report. But action by any individual player will not suffice in the absence of coordination with the others. The building of coalitions, through which the various programs may be orchestrated and their impacts mutually
reinforced, will be necessary for achieving the desirable synergistic and sustainable results.

In pursuit of that goal and to clarify a strategy for achieving it, the major recommendations of Chapters 2 through 6 are partitioned into three categories:

• Urgent actions for launching the process,
• New initiatives that could succeed where previous efforts have failed,
• Well-established measures.

Needless to say, all of the programs mentioned in this report require funding. While calling for national governments to make significant commitments to supporting their own S&T capacity building (Section 2.2), the Study Panel notes that international development assistance should also play a part, and an increasingly important one at that. In many cases, this funding will come through existing channels, but innovative approaches will often be required as well; several such novel mechanisms have been highlighted in Chapter 6.

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