Quite simply, they lacked enough data to make an informed plan.
First, they argue that allowing companies to control large amounts of data raises barriers to entry for potential rivals that lack enough data to develop competitive products.
When engineers at NASA observed the unusually large foam strike, they had a hunch that something was amiss, but they lacked enough data to prove that the vehicle was unsafe.
An early draft of a ground water model that tried to determine how far contaminants could travel at one section of the test site was heavily criticized last September by a review panel of ground water experts who said that the model lacked enough data to make it meaningful.
"It became apparent to me that doctors and patients are open to this approach, but lack enough data to implement it," he said.
That's a tiny fraction of the about 5100 MPAs on the books, but most lack enough data on sea life populations to be analyzed in detail.
Policy discussion around advertising and privacy has thus far lacked enough data on the value of behavioral ads to publishers, ad networks and consumers, says Howard Beals, a commissioner of the NAI study and former director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.
But in many cases, the public sector lacks enough data scientists to do this kind of work for them, and having in-house systems leaves out something crucial: access to data from other organizations for comparative purposes.
However, if researchers lack enough data about the environment before a disaster strikes, as is usually the case, it can be difficult to decipher these effects.
The NRC report inspired another of the initiatives: a new grant competition at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) for investigators lacking enough preliminary data for a full-fledged NIH proposal.
