The Defense Department said Monday it was establishing a new Department of the Navy Science and Technology (DoN S&T) Board in a notice posted to the Federal Register.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro first revealed the plan for this board plus a new Navy Innovation Center at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., during a December 2022 speech (
Defense Daily, Dec. 9, 2022).
This DoN S&T Board will be a discretionary federal advisory committee that aims to provide independent advice and recommendations for the Navy’s scientific, technical, manufacturing, acquisition, logistics, medicine, and business management functions. DoD officially chartered the new board on July 12.
The notice said these matters include “the pressing and complex scientific and technological problems facing the DoD in such areas as research, engineering, organizational structure and process, business and functional concepts, and manufacturing, and will ensure the identification of new technologies and new applications of technology in those areas to strengthen national security.”
The board will be made up of up to 20 private and public sector members, cited as “prominent authorities” in science, technology, manufacturing, acquisition, logistics, medicine, climate and business management functions.
Members will be appointed to serve terms of one to four years, with annual renewals and one member will be appointed as chair. Members will not serve more than two consecutive terms of this DoN S&T Board or serve on more than two DoD federal advisory committees at once, unless approved according to Defense Department policy and procedures.
DoD said the board members will be appointed to provide advice based on their best judgment without representing a particular point of view and should conduct themselves in a manner free from conflict of interest, the notice said. They will serve without compensation except reimbursement of related travel and per diem.