United states
Env'ronmen'al Protection
Agency
Office of Research
and Development
Washington DC 20460
EPA/60Q/F-0 1/001
January 2001
www.epa.gov
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Purpose of the Strategic Plan
The Office of Research and Development's (ORD's) Strategic Plan describes
the organizational goals and the actions that we will take over the next decade to
achieve these goals as we provide the scientific foundation to support the
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) mission.
Our Strategic Plan is evolutionary — creating a path from our past to our future.
Building upon ORD's previous Strategic Plans of 1996 and 1997, the Plan was
developed through collaboration with our colleagues and stakeholders.
Collectively, the five goals that we have established represent our vision for the
future of the organization. Rather than concentrating on what research we will
do, the Plan sets the direction for ho\\- we will conduct our research to accomplish
our mission. It will be our foundation as well as our compass for future decision-
making and will ensure that our science continues to be of high quality, relevant,
responsive, and timely even as our research agenda evolves and changes.
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ORD's
Mission
In conduct
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research and
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to lull,II
EPA's
mission to
protect
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health and
safeguard
the natural
environment.
Our Mission
Directly Supports the
Agency's Mission
| EPA's mission is to protect human health and to safeguard the
natural environment air. water, land— upon which lite depends.
As EPA's scientific arm. ORD provides the scientific foundation
that enables EPA to make informed decisions about risks to human
health and the environment, and thus, eliminate or mitigate those
risks.
Our mission is to conduct leading-edge research and foster the sound
use of science and technology to fulfill EPA's mission. Central to
our mission is the recognition that ORD is driven by the pursuit of
for u />//;•/><>.u'—scientific knowledge that has a direct and
tangible impact on EPA's environmental decisions. As a result, we
are committed to a balanced program of problem-driven and core
research, subject to the condition that this research is always
necessary for, and relevant to, environmental protection and
restoration.
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Creating Our
Stratesic Plan
| Input from ORD's customers and stakeholders was invaluable in helping us
develop the Strategic Plan. They offered us a clear sense of the future, a strong
basis for understanding the challenges facing us, and a candid assessment of ORD's
current strengths and weaknesses.
The Strategic Plan was actually created by hundreds of ORD staff members who
participated in meetings, workshops, and goal-writing teams to discuss the
substance of the goals and to develop the actions and measures of success that are
the core components of the Plan.
The Plan truly speaks with the voices of ORD. Its development and organization
reflect not only good thinking, but also collaborative consensus building in
mapping our future.
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Our Goals
ORD has established five strategic organizational goals to meet the challenges
of the future. Each goal contains several focused objectives, and under each
objective there are specific actions. We will implement these actions in order to
meet each objective and, taken together, achieve all of our goals. Individually,
each goal represents an outcome we aspire to achieve. Collectively, our goals
define the full range of ORD's role in shaping the future of environmental
protection. Our goals are:
Goal 1 Support the Agency's Mission
Goal 2 Be a High-Performing Organization
Goal 3 Be a Leader in the Environmental Research
Community
Goal 4 Integrate Environmental Science and Technology
to Solve Environmental Problems
Goal 5 Anticipate Future Environmental Issues
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Support the Agency's Mission
ORD will support the Agency's Strategic Goals through collaborative
relationships with its program and regional offices by providing
high-quality, relevant, responsive, and timely scientific information and
research results.
Support the
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Science is the foundation of all of EPA's work, ORD's role is
to provide problem-driven and core research, scientific advice,
and technical support that provides a solid, scientific basis for
EPA's policy and program decisions. We are committed to
pursuing "science for a purpose," namely, science to protect
human health and the environment. Thus, our research and
scientific support activities must clearly contribute to the
Agency's Strategic Goals. In addition, the value of all of ORD's
research should be measured by its importance in helping EPA
to do its work—now and in the foreseeable future.
To accomplish this, we must maintain the standard of high
quality science on which EPA's policies, programs, and
credibility rest. ORD's research must be:
• Rigorous, objective, and thorough;
• Structured and conducted to provide complete, integrated
information relevant to decision-making;
• Responsive to the needs of our customers; and
• Provided in a timely and useful manner.
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Objectives
Under Goal 1. ORD's objectives are to:
• Maintain a balanced program of problem-driven and core research;
• Proactively lead EPA's effort to ensure that sound science is synthesized,
integrated, and communicated in a form that supports effective environmental
decision-making by EPA and its stakeholders;
• Provide technical assistance and regulatory support that meet the immediate
needs of the program and regional offices; and
• Routinely obtain advice and feedback on our performance from our
customers.
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Be a High-Performing Organization
ORD will he a high-performing organization in which employees communicate
o/'cnly. serve customers, and work collahonitively to make ORD more effective
and efficient.
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Mission
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in the
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ISM.
Functioning as a high-performing organization allows us to
achieve our other strategic goals. Excellence in scientific and
engineering research requires a strong, supportive organizational
foundation.
The single most important factor contributing to our success is
the talent and effort of our staff. The discoveries and
accomplishments that we seek will spring from the efforts of
staff who are both motivated in their work, and provided with
the support and recognition needed to help them to do their
best. We are committed to the growth and development of our
staff and to continuous improvement in the efficiency and
effecmeness of our organization and infrastructure.
Under this Goal, ORD will continue to provide leadership and
devote resources to develop and foster our workforce. We \\ ill
model effective management behaviors and create a supportive
work environment that promotes diversity, creativity, innovation.
teamwork, and productivity. Further, ORD will create a
stimulating research environment, communicate openly and
clearly, efficiently manage our resources and operations, and
promote flexibility and risk-taking.
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Objectives
Under Goal 2. ORD's objectives are to:
• Recruit, retain, and develop a highly qualified and diverse workforce;
• Create a culture that inspires respect, honesty, and trust;
• Create a stimulating work environment that encourages and rewards
leadership, creativity, innovation, teamwork, and risk-taking; and
• Align our management and administrative processes and tools to help staff
achieve our mission.
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Be a Leader in
the Environmental
Research Community
ORD will enhance its role as a national leader
in the science and engineering research that
underpins protection of human health and the
environment, both hy conducting and sponsoring
mission-critical research and by playing a pivotal
role in the development of a national
environmental research agenda.
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ion
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Be a Leader
in Hie
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( onuiuinilY
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Future
l;nvironmental
Science leadership is critical to our success. It facilitates
collaboration and the exchange of information with the broader
scientific community, reinforces ORD's and EPA's reputation
for sound science, and provides us with the opportunity to
influence the research agendas of others thereby leveraging our
own resources.
To cultivate and sustain science leadership. ORD must exhibit
leadership at all organizational levels. Leadership is not the
same as public recognition, and it is not limited to achievements
by individuals. While recognition and individual achievement
are important, we lead in other ways by shaping the research
direction and priorities of other organizations and by being a
resource for communicating complex issues of science and risk
to the American public and the world. Accordingly, we want
our scientists and engineers to be active participants in
professional societies and conferences and acknowledged as
leaders in their fields. We intend for our managers to be
champions for science and science quality, especially in EPA's
decision-making process. In addition, we will strive to play a
critical role in all aspects of developing and conducting national
research initiatives relevant to EPA's mission.
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Objectives
Under Goal 3, ORD's objectives are to:
• Lead the development and definition of a national environmental research
agenda for integrating and coordinating federally funded environmental
research:
• Uphold the highest standard of independence, objectivity, and excellence;
• Be a widely used source of expertise and knowledge; and
• Communicate the results and value of ORD research.
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Integrate Environmental Science and
Technology to Solve Environmental Problems
ORD will integrate its research across media, disciplines, and institutions
to meet the challenges of complex environmental problems and to promote
the discovery of holistic, efficient, and effective solutions.
Many of today's environmental problems are more complex,
their causes less obvious, and their solutions more expensive
and less certain than in the past. Today, sound risk-based
decisions and environmental stewardship require an integrated
approach in which the right people, with the right skills,
collaborate in comprehensive programs to understand and solve
specific, targeted environmental problems.
Support the
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Integrate
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Anticipate
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Environmental
Integration across all media, disciplines, and institutions is
neither easy nor straightforward. Success will require a broad
mix of skills and organizational capabilities. ORD is uniquely
qualified and positioned to integrate scientific research to
address complex environmental problems. We have close
working relationships with EPA program and regional offices,
established ties to universities and other research institutions,
and a large, multidisciplinary research staff.
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To achieve this Goal, we will integrate research across the following:
• Human and ecological health;
« The risk assessment/risk management paradigm;
• Institutions;
» Disciplines; and
• Media.
Integration will reinforce a sense of common purpose among ORD staff and with
EPA programs and regions. Equally important, integration will provide more
useful and comprehensive information to guide policy and program decisions by
EPA.
Objectives
Under Goal 4, ORD's objectives are to:
• Use ORD's multi-year planning process to identify priority environmental
problems to be addressed by integrated research programs;
• Improve ORD's research management and communication processes to
facilitate and support research that provides integrated solutions to
environmental problems; and
• Dedicate efforts to increase utilization of ORD-developed science in the
Agency's regulatory programs and by the environmental community at large.
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Be a Hi;-
^ •* Perform
m/ation
Anticipate Future Environmental Issues
ORD will evaluate opportunities for and, as appropriate, will conduct
research to anticipate and assess juture environmental stressors—whether
human health or ecological—before their effect* adversely impact people
or the environment.
Anticipating future environmental trends and issues can help
ORD maintain a leading-edge view of scientific needs to prevent
or mitigate potential environmental problems. By using forward
thinking, ORD will encourage more informed decision-making,
help shape the national research agenda, and reinforce its
leadership position in the scientific community.
Support the
Agcn
Mission
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irch
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and
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Anticipate
Future
Envimnmcntal
Issues
Under this Goal. ORD will undertake a systematic "foresight"
approach to identify potential issues that may surface 10 to 20
years into the future. We will focus on both detecting early
warning signals and on identifying new issues for which early
warning signals do not yet exist. In both cases, we intend to
identify future environmental issues and predict their potential
impacts with sufficient accuracy to inform our research planning
process. This will allow EPA to take actions to prevent potential
impacts rather than just respond to them.
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Objectives
Under Goal 5, ORD's objectives are to:
• Develop an organizational capability for environmental foresight;
• Stimulate dialogue both inside and outside EPA on future environmental
developments and their significance; and
• Pilot futures analysis for a few key environmental issuev
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The Future We Seek
Our Strategic Plan evolved from our commitment to support EPA's mission
and our vision for the future of our organization. We will use this Plan as a road
map to guide ORD as an organization over the next 10 years. The Plan will
require us to undertake new activities, enhance or improve upon our existing
activities, and continue to perform at a high level on our current research priorities.
To be successful, we must execute this Plan to its full extent. Implementation of
the Strategic Plan will strengthen ORD's commitment and will unify our Labs,
Centers, and Offices.
The objectives and actions described in this Plan represent those areas where we
intend to concentrate our energy and resources in order to become a more efficient
and effective scientific organization. We have already started to implement some
of the actions in the Plan. We also are in the process of developing a formal
implementation plan to guide our efforts with greater specificity and to clearly
link our stated intentions to available resources and realistic timeframes. Successful
implementation requires the personal commitment of each staff member in ORD,
as well as collaboration across all our Labs, Centers, and Offices.
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To assess our progress toward achieving our goals, we will identify clear and
specific measures of success, which we will track regularly. We will use this
information to evaluate what is working and what needs improvement, and make
adjustments accordingly. Moreover, we will communicate our progress regularly
to our customers and stakeholders. We will also learn from them and other
organizations as to how we might better implement the Plan. By doing so. we
will hold ourselves accountable to our customers, stakeholders, and each other
for achieving our goals and future success.
We crafted our five goals to represent the organization that we intend to become.
We recognize and embrace the challenges and opportunities we will face in working
to achieve these goals. With the pride and dedication of each member of ORD,
we will accomplish our goals while demonstrating the excellence of our work
and the strength of our commitment to a sale and clean environment.
Plan will guide our efforts.
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US EPA Office of Research and Development
For more information, please access the
Office of Research and Development Web site at:
www.epa .gov/ORD
The Stratesic Plan is available on ORD's Web site at:
www.epa.gov/ORD/SP
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