Plans in the Making

In today's world, there is an ever-increasing demand for scientific research and training institutions to provide 'tangible' proof of accountability to their public and private sponsors.

That's how the opening sentence of ICTP's draft strategic plan reads. In a sense, this brief statement--less than 30 words--provides a short-hand justification for the 95-page report that follows.

Critics often ask what purpose does a strategic plan serve? So much of science, after all, depends on individual insight and determination. Meanwhile, so many scientific breakthroughs evolve from unexpected outcomes. Serendipity, in short, doesn't lend itself to long-range plans. What's needed, instead, is an intelligent, committed staff and eager, well-trained students who are given the freedom to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.

That may be true. However, in an age marked by increasing external oversight, scientists can no longer assume that they can avoid public scrutiny. Indeed an unwillingness or inability to explain the value of their research to the public carries increasing risks as competition for research funds intensifies.

That's one of the reasons why ICTP Director Miguel Virasoro asked both the Centre's scientists and administrative staff to contribute to a strategic plan outlining the changes and expanded activities that they would like to see implemented between now and 2003. Entitled "Toward a Long-Range Plan," the report offers a blueprint for the future based on the Centre's fondest hopes.

The document, spearheaded by physicist Juan Roederer, who has been associated with the Centre for more than three decades, not only provides a road map for the future, but is designed to help ICTP scientific and administrative staff to evaluate the Centre's current priorities.

The plan will be presented to the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the Italian government to help officials better appreciate the Centre's mission and goals. Its debut, in fact, took place during the 1998 meeting of the ICTP Steering Committee, held in November. This spring, ICTP's Scientific Council will have an opportunity to formally examine the plan, as will UNESCO during the organization's biennial evaluation process. In response to these assessments, Centre officials "plan" to revise the "plan" based on the recommendations made by each of these institutions.

And that's a critical point. ICTP's strategic plan is an evolving document intended to help the Centre evaluate its mission and goals in a clearer light. Such internal assessments, combined with external scrutiny, will enable the ICTP to meet the challenges that lie ahead while remaining true to the principles that have made it one of the world's most unique scientific research and training facilities.

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