CCST has launched the first state program in the nation that places Ph.D. level scientists and engineers in a fellowship position in a state legislature. The five-year pilot program, to begin in Fall 2009, is modeled after the 35-year-old Congressional S&T Fellows Program, administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

CCST has entered into a partnership with the Business Transportation & Housing Agency and CalPERS to move California forward in personalized medicine/health. CCST has initiated a pilot study designed to develop health information technology (HIT) infrastructure goals for the state in support of personalized health.

In addition to the HIT pilot study, CCST is also conducting an analysis of how the state's healthcare industry workforce development may be advanced. The analysis will examine both existing and needed workforce development programs and strategies to support the shift of healthcare systems to personalized health practices.

This report, released in June 2009, describes current barriers to financing health information technology as a tool for healthcare delivery. It is an update to an earlier version of the report commissioned by the Governor's Health Information Technology Financing Advisory Commission (HITFAC) and submitted to that body in May 2008.

Executive Order S-3-05 calls for the California's greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 to be 80 percent lower than emission levels in 1990. The CEF study is examining what steps might be taken to achieve this important and ambitious target, exploring the feasibility of steps to reduce energy demand through improved efficiency and increasing the use of low-carbon energy supplies.

In response to a request from the California Air Resources Board, CCST is developing an on-line relational database to facilitate implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32). The database will comprise a catalogue of climate change research.

In April 2009 CCST took action to support a University of California admissions process case, then under consideration in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The amicus brief, prepared for CCST by Pepper Hamilton LLP, focuses on the importance of good high school science education and defends UC's policy of requiring standard science curricular backgrounds for applicants, which had been challenged by a coalition of religious schools.

The goal of this joint effort managed by CCST and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is to return California to world prominence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and create a workforce with the STEM skills needed to compete globally in the 21st century. This would lay the foundation for transforming California's STEM education structure into a 21st century K-12 and higher education system where a substantial and increasing number of students are either college bound or workforce ready.

This report documents a symposium led by Cal TAC teachers, in which a group of over 50 leaders from schools, institutes of higher education, business and industry, federal laboratories, science centers and the policy community joined together to consider how California could do a better job of preparing today's students for the future workforce.

On February 18-19, 2009, the National Research Council (NRC) Center for Education and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) convened a strategic visioning meeting designed to guide and inform the work of leaders from the CCST and CSU who are planning a process to establish a CSI-N and framework for advocacy in the state.

This convocation, held in April 2009, was designed to launch a longer-term, statewide effort to engage government, business and industry, private foundations, education researchers, and formal and informal education organizations (both K-12 and postsecondary) across California in developing collaborative efforts to envision, nurture and scale up effective and interconnected STEM programs for Grades K-8.

This project will provide a descriptive and qualitative review of how well elementary school teachers are prepared to teach science, using new data including CSU documenting the preparedness of elementary school teachers to teach science. The report will identify and discuss best practice programs as identified both by the survey data and stakeholder experts.