RESEARCH PROJECT SUPPORT
Research
Project Support develops intellectual capital through support for researchers
engaged in disciplinary and cross-disciplinary research. It emphasizes the discovery of new knowledge
and contributes to education and training.
Research Project Support includes funding for both Research Projects and
Centers.
(Millions of Dollars)
Numbers may not add due to rounding.
Research Projects
FY
2000 support for Research Projects totals $2,032 million, an increase of about
$117 million, or 6.1 percent, over FY 1999. Support for Research Projects includes
funding for researchers and postdoctoral associates as well as undergraduate
and graduate assistants. Funds are also provided for items necessary for
performing research, such as instrumentation and supplies, and for related
costs such as travel and conference support.
Through outreach activities, NSF seeks out and supports excellent
proposals from groups and regions that traditionally have not fully participated
in science, mathematics, and engineering.
NSF
support provided under the other key program functions is essential for
research in science and engineering.
Support for research facilities provides access to state-of-the art
facilities which are essential for world-class research. Support for activities under the education
and training key program function promotes the integration of research and
education and ensures that the rewards of discovery are shared more quickly and
disseminated more widely. There are
also many activities within Research Project Support that contribute to the
integration of research and education including: Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), Research in
Undergraduate Institutions (RUI), Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER),
and Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI).
In FY 2000, NSF will continue its efforts to address
Foundation-wide concerns about grant sizes by increasing the average size and
duration of the awards and providing more support for young researchers. These
efforts will contribute to increasing the efficiency of the Foundation's merit
review process and achieve greater cost-effectiveness for both NSF and the
university community. In accord with
the Foundation's FY 2000 Performance Plan, NSF will continue to provide
increased attention to the percentage of competitive research grants going to
new investigators.
Information Technology for the Twenty-first Century (IT2) Through programs of research, infrastructure development and access, and education and training, NSF supports activities that advance leading edge capabilities in computing, communications and information, and endeavors to have all areas of science and engineering make optimal use of these technologies to advance their fields. NSF’s FY 2000 investment for research activities as part of IT2 totals $80 million for research in software systems, scaleable information infrastructure, high-end computing, and socioeconomic and workforce impacts. Additional IT2 funds will be used to support centers and to develop terascale computing systems.
Complementing
and building on efforts within the IT2 initiative, NSF’s other
research activities will also provide support in FY 2000 for information-based
activities to keep all areas of science and engineering at the cutting edge of
information capabilities. Areas of
support include: scalable enterprise
software; wireless technologies; digital libraries; data mining and analysis of
large, distributed, heterogeneous data bases; high end computing in scalable,
shared problem solving environments; the development of collaboratories and of
remote sensing and remote operation capabilities; and research on the economic, legal and social impacts of
information technology.
Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE). In FY 1999,
NSF explicitly recognized the need for focused research on biocomplexity, and
organized a special competition on the role that microorganisms play in
structuring biological, chemical, geological, physical and/or social systems.
In FY 2000, NSF will sponsor a $50 million focused initiative on biocomplexity
that will facilitate interdisciplinary efforts that span temporal and spatial
scales, consider multiple levels of biological organization, cross conceptual
boundaries, use new and emerging technologies, and link research to
environmental decision making. The FY 2000 competition will emphasize enhancing
our analytical-predictive capabilities by integrating knowledge across
disciplines. Observational capabilities
will be expanded and upgraded to support such integrated efforts.
Other
FY 2000 increases in funding for activities related to biocomplexity will total
approximately $25 million including: a research thrust on biosystems at the
nano-scale; $2.0 million to strengthen the information-processing base
essential to biocomplexity work; efforts to stimulate new approaches to
understanding biocomplexity and accelerate use of state-of–the-art technologies
in ecosystem science; work to improve understanding of carbon cycles in the
environment, short term climate variability and the history of the earth’s
climate; research on global environmental change; and interdisciplinary
research on natural environmental systems and environmentally beneficial
materials and technologies.
Other Priorities
Approximately
$98 million in total support is targeted for the Faculty Early Career
Development (CAREER) program. CAREER
supports junior faculty within the context of their overall career development
and combines, in a single program, the integrated support of quality research
and education. Support for the Research
Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, which involves undergraduate
students in research activities, increases by about 4.2 percent to almost $37
million. These programs are part of
the Foundation's efforts in the area of Educating for the Future which
emphasize the integration of research and education.
The
Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), a State-NSF partnership,
will continue to support improvements in academic research
competitiveness. In FY 2000, funding
for EPSCoR through the Education and Human Resources appropriation totals more
than $48 million. Linkages between
EPSCoR and other NSF-supported research activities is expected to result in an
additional $15 million directed to research in EPSCoR states.
NSF
will provide $25 million to continue support for a Foundation-wide Education
Research Initiative (ERI), initiated in FY
1999 in partnership with the Department of Education and the National Institute
for Child Health and Human Development.
In FY 2000 NSF funding will support continuing research efforts in areas
including: school readiness for
learning in reading and mathematics, K-3 learning in reading and mathematics,
and K-12 teacher education in reading, mathematics, and science.
In
FY 2000, NSF continues to support research activities under the Plant Genome
Research Program. This $55 million program, an increase of $5 million, built upon an existing base of plant genome
research of $20 million within the Biological Sciences Activity, and will
advance understanding of the structure, organization and function of plant
genomes, with particular attention to economically significant plants, and
accelerate utilization of new knowledge and innovative technologies toward a
more complete understanding of basic biological processes in plants.
In
FY 2000, NSF will provide $50 million support, unchanged from FY 1999, for the Foundation-wide Major Research
Instrumentation (MRI) program.
The Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) program is supported at the mandated level of at least 2.5
percent of extramural research. The
program will total approximately $60 million, an increase of approximately $3
million over FY 1999.
Centers
NSF
supports a variety of individual centers and centers programs as part of
Research Project Support. The centers
play a key role in furthering the advancement of science and engineering in the
U.S., particularly through their encouragement of interdisciplinary research
and the integration of research and education.
While the programs are diverse, the centers share a commitment:
·
To address scientific
and engineering questions with a
long-term, coordinated research effort.
Center programs involve a number of scientists and engineers working
together on fundamental research addressing the many facets of complex
problems;
·
To include a strong
educational component that establishes a team-based cross-disciplinary research
and education culture to train the nation's next generation of scientists and
engineers to be leaders in academe, industry and government; and
·
To develop partnerships
with industry that help to ensure that research is relevant to national needs
and that knowledge migrates into innovations in the private sector.
The centers and center programs are listed below.
(Millions of Dollars)
1 Numbers may not add due to
rounding.
2 Other Centers include the Research Centers on the
Human Dimensions of Global Change, the National Consortium on Violence Research, the National High Field FT-ICR
Mass Spectrometry Center, and the National Center for Geographic Information
and Analysis. The National Center for
Environmental Decision-Making Research has been closed.
FY 2000 support for centers is $284 million, an increase
of $55 million over FY 1999. As part of
the initiative Information Technology for the Twenty-first Century ( IT2),
approximately $30 million will be used to initiate Information Technology
Centers. These centers will focus on major disciplinary computer science and
engineering research challenges such as broadband tetherless communications;
building "no-surprise", performance-engineered systems; and multiplying
the physical and mental capabilities of individuals. As part of their long-term
fundamental research mission, these centers will incorporate testbeds and have
significant education, training and outreach components.
Funding for the Engineering Research Centers will increase by $6 million to fund up to three additional centers in the areas of engineering microsystems, scalable enterprise systems and biosystems at the nano-scale. In FY 2000, NSF will support up to 10 new STCs under the new STC: Integrative Partnerships Program. Funding for the first class of STCs will be completed in FY 1999 and funding for the second class is phased down in accordance with plans, making funding available for the new STC awards.
Funding
for the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers will increase by $4
million to support up to four new centers.
Funding for the Environmental Molecular Science Institutes will increase
by more than $4 million to support up to four new institutes. Within the Mathematical Sciences Research
Institutes program, funding of approximately $8 million will provide support
for three centers, including one to be initiated in FY 1999. Funding for the Long Term Ecological
Research Program increases to approximately $16 million, with increased support
for research on urban communities, microbial systems and collaboration with
international LTERs. Up to three new
coastal LTER sites will be established.
In addition, a center for advanced molecular characterization will be
established in FY 2000 at a level of $1
million. Funding for the Centers for
the Human Dimensions of Global Change will decrease by $400,000, due to a
planned reduction.
Additional information for selected centers
supported by NSF is provided below:
1998 Estimates for Selected Centers
(Millions of Dollars)
Number of Participating Institutions: all academic
institutions which participate in activities at the centers.
Number of Partners: the total number of non-academic
participants, including industry, states, and other federal agencies, at the
centers.
Total Leveraged Support: funding for centers from
sources other than NSF.
Number of Participants: the total number of people who utilize center facilities; not just persons directly supported by NSF.
FY 2000
Performance Goals for Research Project Support
The outcomes of NSF investments, the results stemming from the grants and cooperative agreements we make, provide the evidence for NSF’s success as an investment agent. NSF staff pursue the following outcome goals, the general goals of the strategic plan, as they develop the NSF award portfolio:
·
Discoveries at and
across the frontier of science and engineering;
·
Connections between
discoveries and their use in service to society;
·
A diverse,
globally-oriented workforce of scientists and engineers;
·
Improved achievement in
mathematics and science skills needed by all Americans; and
·
Relevant, timely
information on the national and international science and engineering
enterprise.
NSF’s primary business is to make merit-based grants and cooperative agreements to individual researchers and groups, in partnership with colleges, universities, and other institutions -- public, private, state, local, and federal -- throughout the U.S. By providing these resources, NSF contributes to the health and vitality of the U.S. research and education system, which enables and enhances the nation’s capacity for sustained growth and prosperity. The individuals and organizations in which NSF invests conduct the work that ultimately determines the outcomes of the investment process that NSF manages.
NSF uses merit review with external peer evaluation to select about 10,000 new awards each year from about 30,000 competitive proposals submitted by the science and engineering community for its consideration. Work continues through another 10,000 awards made in competitions of previous years. NSF's role in the fabric of federal funding of science and engineering is defined by the fundamental nature of the problems our grantees propose and explore, the innovative nature of the research and education we support, and our integrative approach to research and education.
NSF’s GPRA strategic plan outlines key investment strategies and an action plan for achievement of each of the outcome goals. There are common themes running through these investment strategies, and this performance plan reflects the importance of emphasizing activities that influence achievement of multiple objectives. Common strategies include: (1) broad support for activities across science and engineering research and education using competitive merit review with peer evaluation to identify the most promising ideas from the strongest researchers and educators; (2) integrating research and education to strengthen both; (3) extending NSF’s reach to underserved communities, including enhancing the diversity of the human resource base for science and engineering; (4) emphasis on emerging opportunities, particularly those that drive science and engineering forward at disciplinary interfaces while adding to the knowledge base in areas of national interest; (5) building partnerships with other agencies and other sectors; and (6) assuring that both NSF and the research and education communities reap optimal benefit from the revolution in information, communications, and computing technologies. In addition, NSF is committed to using committees and panels of external experts to assess its effectiveness and directions on a regular basis.
NSF’s management uses information on past performance
(where available) and applies the strategies for enhancing outcomes to allocate
available resources. NSF staff,
advised by the merit review process, select the individual projects to be
supported, managing toward the optimal mix of outcomes, given the available
resources.