CRA Statement in support of the
Information Technology for the Twenty-First Century (IT²) initiative

The Computing Research Association is pleased to extend its enthusiastic support to the Information Technology for the Twenty-First Century (IT²) initiative, the Administration's proposal to expand the federal investment in fundamental research in computing and communications. We commend this bold move to accelerate progress in information technologies R&D and their widespread use in expanding our economy, strengthening public infrastructure and services, advancing science, and improving the lives of all Americans.

CRA also applauds the work of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), a congressionally-chartered, blue-ribbon panel on whose recommendations the initiative is based. PITAC determined the key thrusts in fundamental computing and communications research most likely to lead to the breakthroughs and new capabilities needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The initiative responds directly to those findings and sets forth a promising plan to begin realizing the vast potential of information technologies identified by PITAC.

The initiative encompasses activities at six federal research agencies, each of which will bring its own unique mix of capabilities and expertise to bear on an appropriate subset of the R&D objectives associated with the initiative. CRA has confidence that the coordination and management mechanisms built into the initiative will serve the public interest well.

CRA urges the Congress to continue its important role in the extraordinarily fruitful partnership among government, universities, and industry in computing and communications R&D. The success of the High Performance Computing and Communications program and the Next Generation Internet initiative, for instance, is due in no small part to the contributions of many legislators. We ask the Congress to review the objectives of the initiative and the plans for meeting them and provide the requested resources for these promising investments in our future.

The Computing Research Association is an alliance of more than 180 North American organizations active in computing research working to strengthen research and advanced education in computing and allied fields.