Created by the Alaska State Committee for research with support from AK NSF EPSCoR personnel.
Executive Summary:
Alaska’s economy is based on knowledge. Research – the expansion of knowledge – can improve the
state’s resilience and competitiveness and contribute to human progress. While Alaska’s vast size, extreme
climate, and scattered population present challenges for science and technology development, the state
also offers many advantages: a rich resource base, a unique Arctic location, an educated populace and
increasingly well-regarded university system, and a landscape ideally suited for the study of human and
natural systems undergoing climatic and social change.
This report presents a road map for the future of Alaskan science and technology (S&T) development.
Improving Alaskan S&T requires a collaborative effort between the state, the University of Alaska
(UA), federal agencies, communities, and the private sector. The state has a limited ability to broadly
fund research, especially in lean financial times. Its role is rather to help provide infrastructure and basic
research; education and training; incentives for industrial development; cost matching and focused funding;
and research oversight and coordination. By adopting in-state innovations, the state can also leverage and
validate Alaskan research. It is also incumbent on the state to refine research efforts to help industry to
develop the state economy, and to foster relationships with communities and businesses to better leverage
state funds.
To offer an analogy, the state seeks to build a fire under research. The “spark” is education and incentives
for innovation. The “tinder” is infrastructure and capacity. The “fuel” is match funding and other support,
and the “bellows” represents long-term planning and coordination by the State Committee for Research
(SCoR) and other bodies.
