AbstractIn a significant reversal of traditional priorities, the current US Administration has called for more coordinated S&T decision-making and a progressive shift in government funding toward civilian and dual-use technologies. This creates the need for afresh look at the sprawling system of federal R&D impact assessment. In order to make the system commensurate with the proclaimed objective of economic competitiveness, the case of a more streamlined evaluation mechanism based on (socio)economic principles of value comes in sight. Implementation of such a system, however, may easily stumble on political disagreements concerning its appropriateness and feasibility, disagreements among experts on how to go about it, agency inexperience in applying such methods, and opposition by other organized interest groups. Failure to implement a coherent decision-support system will be detrimental to achieving the ambitious goals of the new S&T plan.