83-549: The National Science Foundation CAREER award is the most prestigious award presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States Federal Government to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research and education, and the integration of these endeavors in the context of their organizations' missions. The awards, presented once each year, include
166-465: A 'merit review' process, the current version of which was introduced in 1997. Reviews are carried out by ad hoc reviewers and panels of independent scientists, engineers, and educators who are experts in the relevant fields of study, and who are selected by the NSF with particular attention to avoiding conflicts of interest. For example, reviewers cannot work at the NSF itself, nor for the institution that employs
249-564: A budget justification document to present to relevant congressional committees, especially the Appropriations Committee. Finally, by the first Monday in February, the president must review and submit the final budget to Congress to approve. OMB is also responsible for the preparation of Statements of Administrative Policy (SAPs) with the president. These statements allow the OMB to communicate
332-702: A chemical spill that contaminated the drinking water of about 300,000 West Virginia residents. In early 2018, it was announced that Trump would cut NSF Research Funding by 30% but quickly rescinded this due to backlash. As of May 2018, Heather Wilson, the secretary of the Air Force, signed that letter of intent with the director of NSF initiating partnership for the research related to space operations and Geosciences , advanced material sciences , information and data sciences , and workforce and processes. The NSF seeks to fulfill its mission chiefly by issuing competitive, limited-term grants in response to specific proposals from
415-522: A federal grant of minimum $ 400,000 for research and education activities for five-year period. The Presidential Young Investigators (PYI) program was initiated in 1983 during the presidency of Ronald Reagan , and remained active until the NSF New Young Investigators (NYI) program replaced it in 1992. Both programs were research-oriented and funded an average of 200 faculty members per year. Another, more selective program began in 1992, when
498-583: A foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions. The NSF is broadly organized into four offices, seven directorates, and the National Science Board . It employs about 2,100 people in permanent, temporary and contractual positions at its headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia . Prior to 2017, its headquarters were located in Arlington, Virginia . In addition to around 1,400 permanent employees and
581-462: A funding rate of 26.6%. According to FY 2020 numbers, the median annualized award size is $ 153,800 and the average duration of an award is 2.9 years. In 2022 the NSF has started funding open source software as part of their Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program. Although the federal government had established nearly 40 scientific organizations between 1910 and 1940, the US relied upon
664-406: A more integrated approach than did most academic departments at the time, encouraging physicists, chemists, engineers, and metallurgists to cross departmental boundaries and use systems approaches to attack complex problems of materials synthesis or processing. The NSF expanded these laboratories into a nationwide network of Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers . In 1972 the NSF launched
747-557: A number of programs that support institution-wide research during this decade including the Graduate Science Facilities program (started in 1960), Institutional Grants for Science (started in 1961), and Science Development Grants, better known as Centers of Excellence program (started in 1964). Notable projects conducted during this decade include creation of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (1960), creation of
830-519: A primarily laissez-faire approach to scientific research and development. Academic research in science and engineering occasionally received federal funding. Within University laboratories, almost all support came from private contributions and charitable foundations. In industrial laboratories, the concentration of workers and funding (some through military and government programs as a result of Roosevelt 's New Deal ) would eventually raise concern during
913-431: A proposal to reduce the NSF social sciences directorate's budget by 75%. Economist Robert A. Moffit suggests a connection between this proposal and Democratic Senator William Proxmire's Golden Fleece Award series criticizing "frivolous" government spending — Proxmire's first Golden Fleece had been awarded to the NSF in 1975 for granting $ 84,000 to a social science project investigating why people fall in love. Ultimately,
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#1733085253640996-412: A search engine that used the links between Web pages as a ranking method, which they later commercialized under the name Google . In 1996 NSF-funded research established beyond doubt that the chemistry of the atmosphere above Antarctica was grossly abnormal and that levels of key chlorine compounds are greatly elevated. During two months of intense work, NSF researchers learned most of what is known about
1079-402: A variety of perspectives. Themes include disagreements over administrative structure, patents and inclusion of social sciences, a populist -versus-scientist dispute, as well as the roles of political parties, Congress, and President Truman . Commonly, this debate is characterized by the conflict between New Deal Senator Harley M. Kilgore and OSRD head Vannevar Bush . Narratives about
1162-736: A whole. Examples of national facilities include the NSF's national observatories, with their giant optical and radio telescopes; its Antarctic research sites; its high-end computer facilities and ultra-high-speed network connections; the ships and submersibles used for ocean research; and its gravitational wave observatories. In addition to researchers and research facilities, NSF grants also support science, engineering and mathematics education from pre-K through graduate school. Undergraduates can receive funding through Research Experiences for Undergraduates summer programs. Graduate students are supported through Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeships (IGERT) and Alliance for Graduate Education and
1245-618: Is an independent agency of the United States federal government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health. With an annual budget of about $ 9.9 billion (fiscal year 2023), the NSF funds approximately 25% of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States' colleges and universities. In some fields, such as mathematics, computer science, economics, and
1328-453: Is essential for the nation's economic health and global competitiveness, and for national defense. This support has manifested in an expanding National Science Foundation budget from $ 1 billion in 1983 to $ 8.28 billion in 2020. NSF has published annual reports since 1950, which since the new millennium have been two reports, variously called "Performance Report" and "Accountability Report" or "Performance Highlights" and "Financial Highlights";
1411-788: Is made up mainly of career appointed staff who provide continuity across changes of party and administration in the White House. Six positions within OMB ;– the Director, the Deputy Director, the Deputy Director for Management, and the administrators of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs , the Office of Federal Procurement Policy , and the Office of Federal Financial Management – are presidentially appointed and Senate - confirmed positions. OMB's largest components are
1494-493: Is one of the principal U.S. statistical agencies . It is a part of the NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE). In May 2011, Republican Senator Tom Coburn released a 73-page report, " National Science Foundation: Under the Microscope ", receiving immediate attention from such media outlets as The New York Times , Fox News , and MSNBC . The report found fault with various research projects and
1577-553: Is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, policies, and procedures to see whether they comply with the president's policies and coordinates inter-agency policy initiatives. Shalanda Young became OMB's acting director in March 2021, and was confirmed by the Senate in March 2022. The Bureau of the Budget , OMB's predecessor, was established in 1921 as a part of
1660-699: The Antarctic Treaty reserving Antarctica for peaceful and scientific research, and a presidential directive gave the NSF responsibility for virtually all U.S. Antarctic operations and research in form of the United States Antarctic Program . In 1963, President John F. Kennedy appointed Leland John Haworth as the second director of the NSF. During the 1960s, the impact of the Sputnik Crisis spurred international competition in science and technology and accelerated NSF growth. The NSF initiated
1743-724: The Department of the Treasury by the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 , which President Warren G. Harding signed into law. The Bureau of the Budget was moved to the Executive Office of the President in 1939 and was run by Harold D. Smith during the government's rapid expansion of spending during World War II . James L. Sundquist, a staffer at the Bureau of the Budget, called the relationship between
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#17330852536401826-539: The Gemini Observatory and the Arecibo Observatory , all of which are funded in whole or in part by NSF. The NSF's astronomy program forged a close working relationship with NASA , also founded in 1958, in that the NSF provides virtually all the U.S. federal support for ground-based astronomy, while NASA's responsibility is the U.S. effort in space-based astronomy. In 1959 the U.S. and other nations concluded
1909-493: The National Defense Research Committee and the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) both from 1941 to 1947. Despite broad agreement over the principle of federal support for science, working out a consensus on how to organize and manage it required five years. The five-year political debate over the creation of a national scientific agency has been a topic for academic study, understood from
1992-497: The National Nanotechnology Initiative , dedicated to the understanding and control of matter at the atomic and molecular scale. NSF's roughly $ 300 million annual investment in nanotechnology research was still one of the largest in the 23-agency initiative. In 2001, NSF's appropriation passed $ 4 billion. The NSF's "Survey of Public Attitudes Toward and Understanding of Science and Technology" revealed that
2075-711: The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) program was instituted, replacing the PFF Awards. NSF PECASE recipients receive no additional funding. Beginning in FY 1997, the NSF selected nominees from among the "most meritorious first-year CAREER awardees supported by the CAREER program." The same year, the CAREER program announcement termed CAREER "a premier program." National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF )
2158-677: The White House asked NSF to institute the Presidential Faculty Fellows (PFF) program. It awarded young faculty up to $ 100,000 per year for five years, with no matching-fund option, and put more emphasis on education and outreach. In 1994, the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program was approved by NSF's National Science Board , and the first awards were presented in FY 1995. Several existing NSF programs and their objectives were merged into CAREER. In 1996,
2241-690: The ozone hole . In 1998 two independent teams of NSF-supported astronomers discovered that the expansion of the universe was actually speeding up, as if some previously unknown force, now known as dark energy , is driving the galaxies apart at an ever-increasing rate. Since passage of the Small Business Technology Transfer Act of 1992 (Public Law 102–564, Title II), NSF has been required to reserve 0.3% of its extramural research budget for Small Business Technology Transfer awards, and 2.8% of its R&D budget for small business innovation research. NSF joined with other federal agencies in
2324-444: The "Science Mobilization Act" (S. 1297), which did not pass. Perceiving organizational chaos, elitism, over-concentration of funds in elite universities, and lack of incentives for socially applicable research, Kilgore envisioned a comprehensive and centralized research body supporting basic and applied research which would be controlled by members of the public and civil servants rather than scientific experts. The public would own
2407-653: The 1990s, OMB was reorganized to remove the distinction between management staff and budgetary staff by combining the dual roles into each given program examiner within the Resource Management Offices. OMB prepares the president's budget proposal to Congress and supervises the administration of the executive branch agencies. It evaluates the effectiveness of agency programs, policies, and procedures, assesses competing funding demands among agencies, and sets funding priorities. OMB ensures that agency reports, rules, testimony, and proposed legislation are consistent with
2490-572: The 2007 fiscal year (October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2007), and in 2007 NSF requested $ 6.43 billion for FY 2008. President Obama requested $ 7.373 billion for fiscal year 2013. Due to the October 1, 2013 shutdown of the Federal Government, and NSF's lapse in funding, their website was down "until further notice", but was brought back online after the US government passed their budget. In 2014, NSF awarded rapid response grants to study
2573-695: The Division of Environmental Sciences (1965), deep sea exploration endeavors Project Mohole (1961) and the Deep Sea Drilling Project (1968–1983), the Ecosystems Analysis Program (1969), and ownership of the Arecibo Observatory (1969). In 1969, Franklin Long was tentatively selected to take over directorship of the NSF. His nomination caused some controversy due to his opposition to the current administration's antiballistic missile program and
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2656-456: The NSF delivered ozone sensors, along with balloons and helium, to researchers at the South Pole so they can measure stratospheric ozone loss. This was in response to findings earlier that year, indicating a steep drop in ozone over a period of several years. The Internet project continued, now known as NSFNET . In 1990 the NSF's appropriation passed $ 2 billion for the first time. NSF funded
2739-547: The NSF has 53 existing contracts. The NSF also supports research through several offices within the Office of the Director, including the Office of Integrative Activities, and Office of International Science and Engineering. The NSF organizes its research and education support through eight directorates, each encompassing several disciplines: An eighth directorate, the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP),
2822-611: The National Science Foundation prior to the 1970s typically concentrated on Vannevar Bush and his 1945 publication Science—The Endless Frontier. In this report, Vannevar Bush, then head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development which began the Manhattan Project , addressed plans for the postwar years to further foster government commitment to science and technology. Issued to President Harry S. Truman in July 1945,
2905-543: The National Science Foundation. which provided for a National Science Board of twenty-four part-time members. In 1951 Truman nominated Alan T. Waterman , chief scientist at the Office of Naval Research , to become the first Director. With the Korean War underway, the agency's initial budget was just $ 151,000 for 9 months. After moving its administrative offices twice, NSF began its first full year of operations with an appropriation from Congress of $ 3.5 million, far less
2988-576: The OMB's 75% reduction proposal failed, but the NSF Economics Program budget did fall 40%. In 2012, political science research was barred from NSF funding by the passage of the Flake Amendment, breaking the precedent of granting the NSF autonomy to determine its own priorities. In fiscal year 2020, NSF received 42,400 proposals and awarded 12,100, for a funding rate of 28%. In FY 2021, the estimates are 43,200 and 11,500 respectively, giving
3071-689: The Office of Legislative Affairs, the Budget Review Division (BRD), and the Legislative Reference Division. The BRD performs government-wide budget coordination and is largely responsible for the technical aspects relating to the release of the president's budget each February. With respect to the estimation of spending for the executive branch , the BRD serves a purpose parallel to that of the Congressional Budget Office (which
3154-539: The Professoriate (AGEP) programs and through the Graduate Research Fellowships, NSF-GRF . K–12 and some community college instructors are eligible to participate in compensated Research Experiences for Teachers programs. In addition, an early career-development program (CAREER) supports teacher-scholars that most effectively integrate research and education within the mission of their organization, as
3237-473: The Smith bill made it to President Truman's desk, but it was vetoed. Truman wrote that regrettably, the proposed agency would have been "divorced from control by the people to an extent that implies a distinct lack of faith in the democratic process". The third attempt began with the introduction of S. 2385 in 1948. This was a compromise bill cosponsored by Smith and Kilgore, and Bush aide John Teeter had contributed in
3320-450: The White House's official position on proposed legislation. In practice, the president has assigned the OMB certain responsibilities when it comes to the budget and hiring authorities who play key roles in developing it. OMB coordinates the development of the president's budget proposal by issuing circulars , memoranda, and guidance documents to the heads of executive agencies. The OMB works very closely with executive agencies in making sure
3403-437: The agencies to discuss issues in the upcoming budget. In July, the OMB issues circular A-11 to all agencies, which outlines instructions for submitting the budget proposals, which the agencies submit by September. The fiscal year begins October 1 and OMB staff meet with senior agency representatives to find out whether their proposals are in line with the president's priorities and policies and identify constraints within
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3486-400: The agency's move to a more nimble international posture. Rather than maintain dedicated offices, NSF will dispatch small teams to specific international institutions. Teams may work for up to a week on-site to evaluate research and explore collaborations with the institution. In addition to the research it funds in specific disciplines, the NSF has launched a number of projects that coordinate
3569-414: The almost $ 33.5 million requested with which 28 research grants were awarded. After the 1957 Soviet Union orbited Sputnik 1 , the first ever human-made satellite, national self-appraisal questioned American education, scientific, technical and industrial strength and Congress increased the NSF appropriation for 1958 to $ 40 million. In 1958 the NSF selected Kitt Peak , near Tucson, Arizona , as
3652-427: The best judges of the direction and needs of their field. While Bush and Kilgore both agreed on the need for a national science policy, Bush maintained that scientists should continue to own the research results and patents , wanted project selection limited to scientists, and focused support on basic research, not the social sciences, leaving the market to support applied projects. Sociologist Daniel Kleinman divides
3735-449: The biennial "Science & Engineering Indicators" report to the US president and Congress, as required by the NSF Act of 1950. In 1977 the first interconnection of unrelated networks was developed, run by DARPA . During this decade, increasing NSF involvement lead to a three-tiered system of internetworks managed by a mix of universities, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. By
3818-541: The budget process and proposal is smooth. The development of the budget within the executive branch has many steps and takes nearly a year to complete. The first step is the OMB informing the president of the country's economic situation. The next step is known as the Spring Guidance: the OMB gives executive agencies instructions on policy guidance to use when coming up with their budget requests along with due dates for them to submit their requests. The OMB then works with
3901-473: The budget proposal until late November. The OMB director then meets with the president and EOP advisors to discuss the agencies' budget proposals and recommends a federal budget proposal, and the agencies are notified of the decisions about their requests. They can appeal to OMB and the president in December if they are dissatisfied with the decisions. After working together to resolve issues, agencies and OMB prepare
3984-514: The comments into a consensus opinion of the administration about the proposal. It is also responsible for writing an Enrolled Bill Memorandum to the president once a bill is presented by both chambers of Congress for the president's signature. The Enrolled Bill Memorandum details the bill's particulars, opinions on the bill from relevant federal departments, and an overall opinion about whether it should be signed into law or vetoed . It also issues Statements of Administration Policy that let Congress know
4067-521: The debate into three broad legislative attempts. The first attempt consisted of the 1945 Magnuson bill (S. 1285), the 1945 Science and Technology Mobilization Bill, a 1945 compromise bill (S. 1720), a 1946 compromise bill (S. 1850), and the Mills Bill (H.B. 6448). The Magnuson bill was sponsored by Senator Warren Magnuson and drafted by the OSRD, headed by Vannevar Bush. The Science and Technology Mobilization bill
4150-747: The development of several curricula based on the NCTM standards , devised by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics . These standards were widely adopted by school districts during the subsequent decade. However, in what newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal called the "math wars", organizations such as Mathematically Correct complained that some elementary texts based on the standards, including Mathland , had almost entirely abandoned any instruction of traditional arithmetic in favor of cutting, coloring, pasting, and writing. During that debate, NSF
4233-620: The drafting process. In 1949, S. 247 was introduced by the same group of senators behind S. 2385, marking the fourth and final effort to establish a national science agency. Essentially identical to S. 2385, S. 247 passed the Senate and the House with a few amendments. It was signed by President Truman on May 10, 1950. Kleinman points out that the final NSF bill closely resembles Vannevar Bush's proposals. (Harley Kilgore) (Vannevar Bush) 1950 Business, labor, farmers, consumers In 1950 Harry S. Truman signed Public Law 507, or 42 U.S.C. 16 creating
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#17330852536404316-519: The efforts of experts in many disciplines, which often involve collaborations with other U.S. federal agencies. Examples include initiatives in: NSF's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) gathers data from surveys and partnerships with other agencies to offer official data on the American science and engineering workforce, graduates of advanced U.S. science and engineering programs, and R&D expenditures by U.S. industry. NCSES
4399-602: The first freely available browser to allow World Wide Web pages that include both graphics and text. Within 18 months, NCSA Mosaic becomes the Web browser of choice for more than a million users, and sets off an exponential growth in the number of Web users. In 1994 NSF, together with DARPA and NASA , launched the Digital Library Initiative. One of the first six grants went to Stanford University , where two graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin , began to develop
4482-734: The five Resource Management Offices, which are organized along functional lines mirroring the federal government, each led by an OMB associate director. Approximately half of all OMB staff are assigned to these offices, the majority of whom are designated as program examiners. Program examiners can be assigned to monitor one or more federal agencies or may be deployed by a topical area, such as monitoring issues relating to U.S. Navy warships. These staff have dual responsibility for both management and budgetary issues, as well as for giving expert advice on all aspects relating to their programs. Each year they review federal agency budget requests and help decide what resource requests will be sent to Congress as part of
4565-558: The foundation, while the NSB meets six times a year to establish its overall policies. The current NSF director is Sethuraman Panchanathan. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) was established by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950. Its stated mission is "to promote the progress of science, to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare, and to secure the national defense." The NSF's scope has expanded over
4648-496: The goals and aims of the agency and published a revised version of the merit review criteria in its 2012 report, to clarify and improve the function of the criteria. However, both criteria already had been mandated for all NSF merit review procedures in the 2010 re-authorization of the America COMPETES Act . The Act also includes an emphasis on promoting potentially transformative research , a phrase which has been included in
4731-445: The government, basically making sure its day-to-day operations run. Without a budget, federal employees could not be paid, federal buildings could not open and federal programs would come to a halt in a government shutdown. Shutdowns can occur when Congress refuses to pass a budget. The Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee (ISDC) was created as an OMB committee by President Ronald Reagan's Executive Order 12549 in 1986, for
4814-417: The latest available FY 2013 Agency Financial Report was posted December 16, 2013, and the six-page FY 2013 Performance and Financial Highlights was posted March 25, 2013. More recently, the NSF has focused on obtaining high return on investment from their spending on scientific research. Various bills have sought to direct funds within the NSF. In 1981, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) introduced
4897-517: The mid-1980s, primary financial support for the growing project was assumed by the NSF. In 1983, NSF budget topped $ 1 billion for the first time. Major increases in the nation's research budget were proposed as "the country recognizes the importance of research in science and technology, and education". The U.S. Antarctic Program was taken out of the NSF appropriation now requiring a separate appropriation. The NSF received more than 27,000 proposals and funded more than 12,000 of them in 1983. In 1985,
4980-403: The most recent incarnation of the 'merit review' criteria. Most NSF grants go to individuals or small groups of investigators, who carry out research at their home campuses. Other grants provide funding for mid-scale research centers, instruments, and facilities that serve researchers from many institutions. Still, others fund national-scale facilities that are shared by the research community as
5063-449: The president and the bureau extremely close and subsequent bureau directors politicians, not public administrators. The bureau was reorganized into the Office of Management and Budget in 1970 during the Nixon administration . The first OMB included Roy Ash (head), Paul O'Neill (assistant director), Fred Malek (deputy director), Frank Zarb (associate director) and two dozen others. In
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#17330852536405146-408: The president's and agencies' policies to the government as a whole and set forth policymakers' agendas. During the review of the federal budget, interest groups can lobby for policy change and affect the budget for the new year. OMB plays a key role in policy conflicts by making sure legislation and agencies' actions are consistent with the executive branch's. OMB has a powerful and influential role in
5229-411: The president's budget and administration policies. OMB also oversees and coordinates the administration's procurement, financial management, information, and regulatory policies. In each of these areas, OMB's role is to help improve administrative management, develop better performance measures and coordinating mechanisms, and reduce unnecessary burdens on the public. OMB's critical missions are: OMB
5312-493: The president's budget. They perform in-depth program evaluations with the Program Assessment Rating Tool, review proposed regulations and agency testimony, analyze pending legislation, and oversee the aspects of the president's management agenda including agency management scorecards. They are often called upon to provide analysis information to EOP staff. They also provide important information to those assigned to
5395-438: The proposing researchers. All proposal evaluations are confidential: the proposing researchers may see them, but they do not see the names of the reviewers. The first merit review criterion is 'intellectual merit', the second is that of the 'broader societal impact' of the proposed research; the latter reflects a broader global trend for funding agencies to demand evidence of research 'impact' and has been met with opposition from
5478-519: The public had a positive attitude toward science, but a poor understanding of it. During 2004–5 NSF sent "rapid response" research teams to investigate the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster and Hurricane Katrina . An NSF-funded engineering team helped uncover why the levees failed in New Orleans . In 2005, NSF's budget stood at $ 5.6 billion, in 2006 it stood at $ 5.91 billion for
5561-475: The purpose of monitoring the implementation of the order. This order mandates executive departments and agencies to: Circulars are instructions or information the OMB issues to federal agencies that are indexed by major category: Budget, State and Local Governments, Educational and Non-Profit Institutions, Federal Procurement, Federal Financial Management, Federal Information Resources / Data Collection and Other Special Purpose. Circular NO. A-119 Circular A-119
5644-510: The report made a strong case for federally-funded scientific research, arguing that the nation would reap rich dividends in the form of better health care, a more vigorous economy, and a stronger national defense. It proposed creating a new federal agency, the National Research Foundation. The NSF first appeared as a comprehensive New Deal Policy proposed by Sen. Harley Kilgore of West Virginia. In 1942, Senator Kilgore introduced
5727-658: The research community and establishing cooperative agreements with research organizations. It does not operate its own laboratories, unlike other federal research agencies, notable examples being NASA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NSF uses four main mechanisms to communicate funding opportunities and generate proposals: dear colleague letters, program descriptions, program announcements, and program solicitations. The NSF receives over 50,000 such proposals each year, and funds about 10,000 of them. Those funded are typically projects that are ranked highest in
5810-543: The rights to all patents funded by public monies and research monies would be equitably spread across universities. Kilgore's supporters included non-elite universities, small businesses, and the Budget Bureau. His proposals received mixed support. Vannevar Bush opposed Kilgore, preferring science policy driven by experts and scientists rather than public and civil servants. Bush was concerned that public interests would politicize science, and believed that scientists would be
5893-455: The scientific and policy communities since its inception in 1997. In June 2010, the National Science Board (NSB), the governing body for NSF and science advisers to both the legislative and executive branches, convened a 'Task Force on Merit Review' to determine "how well the current Merit Review criteria used by the NSF to evaluate all proposals were serving the agency." The task force reinforced its support for both criteria as appropriate for
5976-644: The site of the first national observatory, that would give any astronomer unprecedented access to state-of-the-art telescopes; previously major research telescopes were privately funded, available only to astronomers who taught at the universities that ran them. The idea expanded to encompass the National Optical Astronomy Observatory , the National Radio Astronomy Observatory , the National Solar Observatory ,
6059-566: The social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing. NSF's director and deputy director are appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate, whereas the 24 president-appointed members of the National Science Board (NSB) do not require U.S. Senate confirmation. The director and deputy director are responsible for administration, planning, budgeting and day-to-day operations of
6142-545: The staffs of the NSB office and the Office of the Inspector General , NSF's workforce includes some 200 scientists on temporary duty and 450 contract workers. Scientists from research institutions can join the NSF as temporary program directors, called "rotators", overseeing the merit review process and searching for new funding opportunities. These assignments typically last one–two years, but may extend to four. The NSF also offers contracting opportunities. As of May 2018,
6225-456: The statutory offices within OMB: the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Office of Federal Financial Management, and the Office of E-Government & Information Technology , which specializes in issues such as federal regulations and procurement policy and law. Other components are OMB-wide support offices, including the Office of General Counsel,
6308-593: The wartime period. In particular, concerns were raised that industry laboratories were largely allowed full patent rights of technologies developed with federal funds. These concerns, in part, led to efforts like Senator Harley M. Kilgore 's "Science Mobilization Act". Amidst growing awareness that US military capability depended on strength in science and engineering, Congress considered several proposals to support research in these fields. Separately, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sponsored creation of organizations to coordinate federal funding of science for war, including
6391-410: The years to include many areas that were not in its initial portfolio, including the social and behavioral sciences, engineering, and science and mathematics education. The NSF is the only U.S. federal agency with a mandate to support all non-medical fields of research. Since the technology boom of the 1980s, the U.S. Congress has generally embraced the premise that government-funded basic research
6474-613: Was both lauded and criticized for favoring the standards. In 1991 the NSFNET acceptable use policy was altered to allow commercial traffic. By 1995, with private, commercial market thriving, NSF decommissioned the NSFNET, allowing for public use of the Internet. In 1993 students and staff at the NSF-supported National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, developed Mosaic ,
6557-546: Was created in 2022 to accelerate the transition of basic research into real world impact. It has a primary goal of the support of use-inspired research and the translation of research results to the market and society. Prior to October 2018, NSF maintained three overseas offices to promote collaboration between the science and engineering communities of the United States and other continents' scientific communities: All three overseas offices were shut down in October 2018, to reflect
6640-572: Was created in response to the OMB) for estimating Congressional spending, the Department of the Treasury for estimating executive branch revenue, and the Joint Committee on Taxation for estimating Congressional revenue. The Legislative Reference Division is the federal government's central clearing house for proposed legislation or testimony by federal officials. It distributes proposed legislation and testimony to all relevant federal reviewers and distills
6723-504: Was critical of the social sciences. It started a controversy about political bias and a Congressional Inquiry into federally sponsored research. In 2014, Republicans proposed a bill to limit the NSF Board's authority in grant-writing. Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget ( OMB ) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function
6806-481: Was promoted by Harley Kilgore. The bills called for the creation of a centralized science agency, but differed in governance and research supported. The second attempt, in 1947, included Senator H. Alexander Smith 's bill S. 526, and Senator Elbert Thomas 's bill S. 525. The Smith bill reflected ideas of Vannevar Bush, while the Thomas bill was identical to the previous year's compromise bill (S. 1850). After amendments,
6889-478: Was ultimately rejected by President Richard Nixon. William D. McElroy instead took over as the third director of the NSF in 1969. By 1968, the NSF budget had reached nearly $ 500 million. In 1972 the NSF took over management of twelve interdisciplinary materials research laboratories from the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). These university-based laboratories had taken
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