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France A. CórdovaDirector
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Mission
Overview
History
In 1945, Vannevar Bush, head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, wrote a landmark report, "Science--The Endless Frontier." The report stressed the importance of new scientific knowledge for the economic, social and military well-being of the nation, and that the federal government had the responsibility to see this through. The report recommended the establishment of a foundation to oversee federal funding for basic scientific research and the training of men and women in science. Bush also encouraged actively promoting the international exchange of scientific information. In 1950, Congress passed Public Law 81-507 creating the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NSF has been funding advances and discoveries in science ever since.
NSF: Where Discoveries Begin
NSF's strategic plan for fiscal years 2011 to 2016 defines our vision: "A nation that capitalizes on new concepts in science and engineering (S&E) and provides global leadership in advancing research and education." For more than 60 years, NSF has identified and funded research in new scientific frontiers. Many of the resulting discoveries and technological advances have been truly revolutionary. NSF-funded scientists or research teams discovered many of the fundamental particles of matter, analyzed the cosmic microwaves left over from the earliest epoch of the universe, developed carbon-14 dating of ancient artifacts, decoded the genetics of viruses, and created an entirely new state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate.
NSF’s continued commitment to supporting a wide range of scientific fields and disciplines will help secure and sustain U.S. competitiveness and economic growth. Similarly, NSF’s strong support for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels will provide the nation with a globally competitive workforce now and in the future.
NSF-funded research has led to many new technologies that are used on a daily basis like barcodes, the Internet (including the world's first, freely available web browser, Mosaic), and wireless technology that revolutionized the cellphone industry.
NSF also funds major research equipment used by scientists and engineers including giant optical and radio telescopes, Antarctic research stations, high-end computer facilities and ultra-high-speed connections, ships for ocean research, sensitive detectors of very subtle physical phenomena and gravitational wave observatories.
Another essential element in NSF's mission is support for education in science, technology, enginering, and mathematics, from pre-Kindergarten through graduate school and beyond. NSF thoroughly integrates research with education to help ensure that there will always be plenty of skilled people available to work in new and emerging scientific, engineering and technological fields, and plenty of capable teachers to educate the next generation.
In the past few decades, NSF has supported at least 197 Nobel Laureates at some point in their careers—including almost 70 percent of U.S. recipients, as well as other honors too numerous to list.
Promoting partnerships is one of NSF's core strategies. NSF supports collaborative projects with academic institutions, private industry, and state and local government; works closely with other federal agencies in cross-cutting areas of research and education; and supports U.S. participation in international scientific efforts.
NSF By the Numbers
- In 1951, NSF's initial budget was just $225,000. As of fiscal year 2012, NSF's budget is $7.0 billion.
- NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions.
- NSF is the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing.
- Each year, NSF receives over 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards nearly $420 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
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Strategic Goals & Objectives
Agencies establish a variety of organizational goals to drive progress toward key outcomes for the American people. Long-term strategic goals articulate clear statements of what the agency wants to achieve to advance its mission and address relevant national problems, needs, challenges and opportunities. Strategic objectives define the outcome or management impact the agency is trying to achieve, and also include the agency's role. Each strategic objective is tracked through a suite of performance goals, indicators and other evidence. Click here for more information on stakeholder engagement during goal development.
Strategic Goal:
Transform the Frontiers of Science and Engineering
Statement:
Transform the Frontiers of Science and Engineering
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Invest in fundamental research to ensure significant continuing advances across NSF science, engineering, and education.
Description:
This objective encompasses NSF’s largest and most important function – awarding grants to support research. This investment objective has a clear record of producing major new paradigms and technology disruptions that have the power to change our world and impact individual lives. Investments have led to major discoveries recognized by the most highly prized international awards. These types of investments have potentially high payoffs, but are not without risk, as major advances cannot result from every grant. It is rarely possible to predict whether any specific award will generate outcomes with important societal implications. Rather, fundamental research will generate new knowledge that may in the future contribute, often in unpredictable ways, to addressing a national challenge. Often, a long period of incremental advances in knowledge is needed to set the stage for the creative leaps that produce game-changing innovation.
It is vital to the successful realization of this strategic objective that NSF places a high priority on cultivating strong communities of fundamental researchers and intellectual pioneers across the globe, working both as individuals and in a variety of collaborative ways. It is also important that NSF balance its portfolio with a mix of programs and funding modalities to ensure fundamental research is conducted across a wide variety of fields of science, engineering, and education.
Priority Goal: Invest strategically in public participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research (PPSR)
Statement:
Build the capacity of the Nation to solve research challenges and improve learning by investing strategically in crowdsourcing and other forms of public participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research (PPSR).
By September 30, 2017, NSF will implement mechanisms to expand and deepen the engagement of the public in research.
Description:
Problem/Opportunity:
Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers have involved the public in their research efforts to solve challenging problems for centuries in a variety of fields. For example, daily precipitation data collected by volunteers throughout the US have been used to develop more accurate, fine-grained models that improve weather forecasting, agriculture, and disaster risk analyses. Water quality and wildlife monitoring projects allow communities to understand their local environments in systematic ways and allow them to compare their findings with those from other areas. These types of activities have been referred to in a variety of ways. For this Agency Priority Goal, "Public Participation in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Research" (PPSR) is used as an overarching term that includes citizen science, crowdsourcing research, and similar activities.
PPSR has grown significantly in the past decade, in part due to new technological tools that facilitate interactions between scientists and participants. There are a number of economic, societal, and technological trends that are increasing the variety and value of what public participation in research can accomplish. These trends include: the democratization of the tools needed to design and make a variety of items; the Maker Movement; the emergence of online communities with shared interests in projects such as exploration of diverse fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by members of the public; and crowdfunding platforms that allow teams to raise funding for their projects.
New technological tools also have facilitated crowdsourcing research, a process in which open calls are made for voluntary contributions to STEM problem-solving. These calls are typically either to a non-specified group of individuals ("the crowd") or to individuals with specific expertise, thus leveraging the skills and knowledge of many.
Without public participants and their contributions, some STEM research that addresses challenging problems would not be practical or even possible, e.g., projects mandating data collection from many geographical locations or over long periods of time or projects that require expertise for analysis of data as well as large sets of visual or numeric data. PPSR approaches hold promise to continue to address new research questions and contribute to ongoing STEM research. Moreover, citizen science and crowdsourcing research provide opportunities for the broadest possible participation in learning how STEM research is done and in engaging in it directly. Participants include individuals from urban, suburban and rural communities; diverse economic, geographic, racial, ethnic, gender, and linguistic groups; and individuals with a range of abilities and disabilities.
The motivation for PPSR may be derived from community concerns or may be researcher-led. The level of public involvement varies from being contributory (e.g., collecting and recording data) to collaborative (e.g., analyzing samples and discussing results) to co-created (in which the public might be involved in all phases of the scientific process from defining the question for investigation, to experimenting, analyzing, and reporting). Thus, people with various interests and abilities are often able to participate and contribute productively.
With the opportunity to reach more people and therefore collect and analyze data sets more extensively than possible through the efforts of scientists alone, PPSR may go beyond simply enhancing our ability to do traditional STEM research better. Citizen science and crowdsourcing science enable us to pursue entirely new avenues of research and development that can only be achieved through public-scientist collaborations. The different perspectives and habits of mind that public participants can bring to bear on the interpretation of data may also open new avenues of research and development.
Over the past decade, NSF has funded hundreds of STEM research projects that rely on PPSR across a diverse array of fields. The scope of PPSR is broad and encompasses geosciences and biological sciences, technology and engineering, social and behavioral sciences, education, computer and information sciences, and physical sciences. These projects collectively have created a strong foundation for future PPSR activities and have identified areas for potential improvement and expansion. The next phase of NSF investments will expand beyond project-by-project approaches to explore underlying issues and areas for innovation. In particular, this next phase could help identify: new research challenges that might be addressed using PPSR; new PPSR-enabling technology; social aspects of working with the public; effective PPSR program design; learning experience facilitated by PPSR; ways in which PPSR can broaden participation in STEM; and a myriad of data-related issues, including data quality and collection, data management, visualization, and data ownership models. This phase of investments should also prompt the broader community to tackle long-standing but unresolved STEM challenges and to open doors to new STEM research areas.
To achieve this Agency Priority Goal NSF will use three specific mechanisms to fund proposals that explicitly include PPSR approaches: Research Coordination Networks (RCNs), EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGERs), and supplements to existing awards. Research Coordination Networks support communication and coordination across disciplinary, organizational, institutional, and geographic boundaries, thus facilitating ongoing activities above the project level. EAGERs are designed as "high risk-high payoff" awards. These types of awards will likely push our collective understandings of how PPSR is leveraged to support scientific discovery and the public's engagement with research. Supplements to existing awards provide opportunities to (1) include PPSR approaches in projects that are appropriate for PPSR but haven't already incorporated PPSR approaches and (2) for other projects to deepen their use of PPSR approaches.
This Agency Priority Goal also takes advantage of the Executive Branch's momentum in this area. For example, the White House honored Citizen Science Champions of Change and included citizen science projects and opportunities in its recent science fair. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) rolled out a new toolkit for federal-sponsored PPSR projects on September 30, 2015 and issued a memo with actions for federal agencies with respect to PPSR. Among the public communities that NSF serves, this Agency Priority Goal is relevant and timely. It addresses the need for investments in PPSR as articulated in recent journals, such as Science; at conferences, such as the citizen science pre-conference workshop at AAAS in 2015; and by practitioner organizations, such as the Citizen Science Association.
Relationship to agency strategic goals and objectives
PPSR projects have both scientific value and educational value. Thus, PPSR supports NSF Strategic Goal 1, Objective 1 ("Invest in fundamental research to ensure significant continuing advances across science, engineering, and education") and NSF Strategic Goal 2, Objective 2 ("Build the capacity of the Nation to address societal challenges using a suite of formal, informal and broadly available STEM educational mechanisms").
Key barriers and challenges to its achievement
1. Coordinate cross-program and cross-directorate investments that enhance both an understanding of and ability to implement PPSR approaches.
2. Manage expectations among colleagues across the federal government and public sphere as PPSR is further developed to support their daily work.
External factors
OSTP and the Federal Community of Practice for Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing (FCPCSC) have directly contributed to development of this Agency Priority Goal. In addition, activities by federal agencies and offices related to open innovation, citizen science, and crowdsourcing research will inform the state of the field with respect to challenges and opportunities in PPSR.
Statement:
Integrate education and research to support development of a diverse STEM workforce with cutting-edge capabilities
Description:
The global competitiveness of the United States in the 21st century depends directly on the readiness of the Nation’s STEM workforce. Educational institutions around the country must recruit, train, and prepare a diverse STEM workforce to advance the frontiers of science and participate in the U.S. technology-based economy. One of NSF’s most enduring contributions to the national innovation ecosystem is the integration of education and research in the activities we support. When students participate in cutting-edge research activities under the guidance of the Nation’s most creative scientists and engineers, the students can gain the up-to-date knowledge and practical, hands-on experience needed to develop into creative contributors who can engage in innovative activities throughout all sectors of society. The successive cadres of high-tech workers, each armed with practical knowledge of the most advanced thinking and technology of the day, create the flow of highly adaptable human capital needed to power discovery and innovation. NSF also supports the development of a strong STEM workforce by investing in building the knowledge that informs improvements in STEM teaching and learning. Such improvements include effective curricular and teaching strategies for increased student learning, as well as new approaches enabled by advanced classroom technologies. Investments in social science and education research in learning, teaching, and institutions can have major impacts when derived insights are applied to the education of the STEM workforce.
The transformation of the frontiers of science and engineering requires dramatic change in the diversity of S&E communities. The demographic evolution in the United States is reflected in a strong, growing workforce whose makeup is changing rapidly. Women and members of minority groups represent an expanding portion of the country’s potential intellectual capital. NSF is committed to increasing access for currently underrepresented groups to STEM education and careers through our investments in research and education. The resulting enhancement of diversity is essential to provide the strength that comes from diverse perspectives, as well as to assure development of the Nation’s intellectual capital.
Priority Goal: Improve STEM graduate student preparedness
Statement:
Improve STEM graduate student preparedness for entering the workforce.
By September 30, 2017, NSF will fund at least three summer institutes and 75 supplements to existing awards to provide STEM doctoral students with opportunities to expand their knowledge and skills to prepare for a range of careers.
Description:
A strong global economy is reliant on the ability to capitalize on technical innovations that result from a skilled and agile STEM workforce. As a result, the Nation’s scientific workforce must evolve and mature to include more doctoral level researchers in positions outside of academia. These positions require comprehensive preparation in science at the graduate level, as well as proficiency in other critical skills.
Surveys of graduate students analyzed in recent reports have demonstrated that graduate student training has not kept pace with STEM workforce needs beyond traditional roles in academia. In recent years there has been a shift in the job market for science and engineering doctorate holder that has resulted in more varied career choices. Scientists and engineers with doctorates are now more evenly split between the business sector (45%) and the education sector (46%) (Source: Survey of Earned Doctorates, National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics 2013). Within the education sector, over 90 percent of doctorates are employed at 4-year institutions. However, Ph.D. training remains largely focused on preparation for the research component of academic careers with an emphasis on skills needed at research institutions. There is considerable value to traditional academic training, which can provide doctoral graduates with experience in critical thinking as well as oral and written communication
The purpose of this Priority Goal is to provide opportunities for science and engineering doctoral students so they can acquire the knowledge, experience, and skills needed for highly productive careers, inside and outside of academe. Although investments in the Graduate Research Internship Program (GRIP) and Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (GROW) provide support across disciplines that help address this issue, a larger, agency-wide effort directed at the specific goal of determining effective approaches to increased graduate student preparedness is needed.
The activities in this APG will be undertaken in coordination with NSF’s forthcoming strategic plan for investment in graduate students and graduate education. In addition, these approaches will be reported at the NSTC Committee on STEM Education’s Interagency Working Group on Graduate Education (co-chaired by NSF and NIH) as a possible model for consideration by other agencies.
The activities in this APG will be undertaken in coordination with NSF’s forthcoming strategic framework for investment in graduate education. In addition, these approaches will be reported at the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Committee on STEM Education’s Interagency Working Group on Graduate Education (co-chaired by NSF and NIH).
The NSTC Committee on STEM notes that “tomorrow’s STEM workforce will need to include effective change makers and entrepreneurs in business, public service, civil society, and academia. Some universities are encouraging students to set and meet more ambitious goals for their research, education, and service; giving students greater autonomy earlier in their career; connecting students to real-world problems at a regional, national, and global level; and involving students in the design of university curricula, research initiatives, and collaborations with external partners.” This APG will explore ways to partner with universities to identify and spread promising practices for achieving this vision.
Priority Goal: Invest strategically in public participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research (PPSR)
Statement:
Build the capacity of the Nation to solve research challenges and improve learning by investing strategically in crowdsourcing and other forms of public participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research (PPSR).
By September 30, 2017, NSF will implement mechanisms to expand and deepen the engagement of the public in research.
Description:
Problem/Opportunity:
Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers have involved the public in their research efforts to solve challenging problems for centuries in a variety of fields. For example, daily precipitation data collected by volunteers throughout the US have been used to develop more accurate, fine-grained models that improve weather forecasting, agriculture, and disaster risk analyses. Water quality and wildlife monitoring projects allow communities to understand their local environments in systematic ways and allow them to compare their findings with those from other areas. These types of activities have been referred to in a variety of ways. For this Agency Priority Goal, "Public Participation in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Research" (PPSR) is used as an overarching term that includes citizen science, crowdsourcing research, and similar activities.
PPSR has grown significantly in the past decade, in part due to new technological tools that facilitate interactions between scientists and participants. There are a number of economic, societal, and technological trends that are increasing the variety and value of what public participation in research can accomplish. These trends include: the democratization of the tools needed to design and make a variety of items; the Maker Movement; the emergence of online communities with shared interests in projects such as exploration of diverse fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by members of the public; and crowdfunding platforms that allow teams to raise funding for their projects.
New technological tools also have facilitated crowdsourcing research, a process in which open calls are made for voluntary contributions to STEM problem-solving. These calls are typically either to a non-specified group of individuals ("the crowd") or to individuals with specific expertise, thus leveraging the skills and knowledge of many.
Without public participants and their contributions, some STEM research that addresses challenging problems would not be practical or even possible, e.g., projects mandating data collection from many geographical locations or over long periods of time or projects that require expertise for analysis of data as well as large sets of visual or numeric data. PPSR approaches hold promise to continue to address new research questions and contribute to ongoing STEM research. Moreover, citizen science and crowdsourcing research provide opportunities for the broadest possible participation in learning how STEM research is done and in engaging in it directly. Participants include individuals from urban, suburban and rural communities; diverse economic, geographic, racial, ethnic, gender, and linguistic groups; and individuals with a range of abilities and disabilities.
The motivation for PPSR may be derived from community concerns or may be researcher-led. The level of public involvement varies from being contributory (e.g., collecting and recording data) to collaborative (e.g., analyzing samples and discussing results) to co-created (in which the public might be involved in all phases of the scientific process from defining the question for investigation, to experimenting, analyzing, and reporting). Thus, people with various interests and abilities are often able to participate and contribute productively.
With the opportunity to reach more people and therefore collect and analyze data sets more extensively than possible through the efforts of scientists alone, PPSR may go beyond simply enhancing our ability to do traditional STEM research better. Citizen science and crowdsourcing science enable us to pursue entirely new avenues of research and development that can only be achieved through public-scientist collaborations. The different perspectives and habits of mind that public participants can bring to bear on the interpretation of data may also open new avenues of research and development.
Over the past decade, NSF has funded hundreds of STEM research projects that rely on PPSR across a diverse array of fields. The scope of PPSR is broad and encompasses geosciences and biological sciences, technology and engineering, social and behavioral sciences, education, computer and information sciences, and physical sciences. These projects collectively have created a strong foundation for future PPSR activities and have identified areas for potential improvement and expansion. The next phase of NSF investments will expand beyond project-by-project approaches to explore underlying issues and areas for innovation. In particular, this next phase could help identify: new research challenges that might be addressed using PPSR; new PPSR-enabling technology; social aspects of working with the public; effective PPSR program design; learning experience facilitated by PPSR; ways in which PPSR can broaden participation in STEM; and a myriad of data-related issues, including data quality and collection, data management, visualization, and data ownership models. This phase of investments should also prompt the broader community to tackle long-standing but unresolved STEM challenges and to open doors to new STEM research areas.
To achieve this Agency Priority Goal NSF will use three specific mechanisms to fund proposals that explicitly include PPSR approaches: Research Coordination Networks (RCNs), EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGERs), and supplements to existing awards. Research Coordination Networks support communication and coordination across disciplinary, organizational, institutional, and geographic boundaries, thus facilitating ongoing activities above the project level. EAGERs are designed as "high risk-high payoff" awards. These types of awards will likely push our collective understandings of how PPSR is leveraged to support scientific discovery and the public's engagement with research. Supplements to existing awards provide opportunities to (1) include PPSR approaches in projects that are appropriate for PPSR but haven't already incorporated PPSR approaches and (2) for other projects to deepen their use of PPSR approaches.
This Agency Priority Goal also takes advantage of the Executive Branch's momentum in this area. For example, the White House honored Citizen Science Champions of Change and included citizen science projects and opportunities in its recent science fair. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) rolled out a new toolkit for federal-sponsored PPSR projects on September 30, 2015 and issued a memo with actions for federal agencies with respect to PPSR. Among the public communities that NSF serves, this Agency Priority Goal is relevant and timely. It addresses the need for investments in PPSR as articulated in recent journals, such as Science; at conferences, such as the citizen science pre-conference workshop at AAAS in 2015; and by practitioner organizations, such as the Citizen Science Association.
Relationship to agency strategic goals and objectives
PPSR projects have both scientific value and educational value. Thus, PPSR supports NSF Strategic Goal 1, Objective 1 ("Invest in fundamental research to ensure significant continuing advances across science, engineering, and education") and NSF Strategic Goal 2, Objective 2 ("Build the capacity of the Nation to address societal challenges using a suite of formal, informal and broadly available STEM educational mechanisms").
Key barriers and challenges to its achievement
1. Coordinate cross-program and cross-directorate investments that enhance both an understanding of and ability to implement PPSR approaches.
2. Manage expectations among colleagues across the federal government and public sphere as PPSR is further developed to support their daily work.
External factors
OSTP and the Federal Community of Practice for Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing (FCPCSC) have directly contributed to development of this Agency Priority Goal. In addition, activities by federal agencies and offices related to open innovation, citizen science, and crowdsourcing research will inform the state of the field with respect to challenges and opportunities in PPSR.
Priority Goal: Increase the Nation’s Data Science Capacity
Statement:
Improve the Nation’s capacity in data science by investing in the development of human capital and infrastructure.
By September 30th, 2015, implement mechanisms to support the training and workforce development of future data scientists; increase the number of multi-stakeholder partnerships to address the nation’s big-data challenges; and increase investments in current and future data infrastructure extending data –intensive science into more research communities.
Description:
Innovative information technologies are transforming the fabric of society, and data represent a transformative new currency for science, education, government, and commerce. Data are everywhere; they are produced in rapidly increasing volume and variety by virtually all scientific, educational, governmental, societal and commercial enterprises. (For more information see “Dealing with Data,” Science Magazine, Volume 331, February 11, 2011.)
Today we live in an era of data and information. This era is enabled by modern experimental methods and observational studies; large-scale simulations; scientific instruments, such as telescopes and particle accelerators; Internet transactions, email, videos, images, and click streams; and the widespread deployment of sensors everywhere – in the environment, in our critical infrastructure, such as in bridges and smart grids, in our homes, and even on our clothing. Every day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated – so much that 90 percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/).
It is important to note that when we talk about big data it is not just the enormous volume of data that needs to be emphasized, but also the heterogeneity, velocity, and complexity that collectively create the science and engineering challenges we face today.
In December 2010, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) published a report to the President and Congress entitled: Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast-nitrd-report-2010.pdf) In that report, PCAST pointed to the research challenges involved in large-scale data management and analysis and the critical role of Networking and Information Technology (NIT) in moving from data to knowledge to action, underpinning the Nation’s future prosperity, health and security.
Through long-term, sustained investments in foundational computing, communications and computational research, and the development and deployment of large-scale facilities and cyberinfrastructure, federal agency R&D investments over the past several decades have both helped generate this explosion of data as well as advance our ability to capture, store, analyze, and use these data for societal benefit. More specifically, we have seen fundamental advances in machine learning, knowledge representation, natural language processing, information retrieval and integration, network analytics, computer vision, and data visualization, which together have enabled Big Data applications and systems that have the potential to transform all aspects of our lives.
These investments are already starting to pay off, demonstrating the power of Big Data approaches across science, engineering, medicine, commerce, education, and national security, and laying the foundations for U.S. competitiveness for many decades to come. But much more needs to be done, particularly in four areas: 1) basic research; 2) data infrastructure; 3) education and workforce development; and 4) community outreach.
NSF can catalyze progress in these areas by developing programs to engage the research community, and by creating mechanisms to catalyze the development of people and infrastructure to address the challenges posed by this new flood of data.
NSF will help increase the number of data scientists engaged in academic research, development, and implementation. As defined in the 2005 NSB publication of Long-lived Digital Data Collections: Enabling Research and Education in the 21st Century defines data scientists as “the information and computer scientists, database and software programmers, disciplinary experts, curators, and expert annotators, librarians, archivists and others, who are crucial to the successful management of a digital data collection.”
Using its ability to convene diverse sets of stakeholders, NSF will promote multi-stakeholder partnerships by supporting workshops and follow-on activities that bring together representatives of industry, academia, not-for-profit organizations, and other entities to address current and future big-data challenges. NSF will also leverage existing programs, such as the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) and the Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) programs, and create new programs and tracks to current programs, as needed, to support the creation of more researchers and students competent in the deep analytical and technical skills required to address those challenges.
NSF will develop strategies to build and sustain data infrastructure for the 21st century through CIF21.
NSF will coordinate with other agencies through the National Science and Technology Council to achieve this goal.
Statement:
Provide world-class research infrastructure to enable major scientific advances
Description:
To fulfill our core mission of “promoting the progress of science,” NSF must provide the research community with advanced and powerful tools and capabilities to keep the Nation’s research enterprise at the global forefront. These tools and capabilities include major research facilities, mid-scale instrumentation, advanced computational and data resources, and cyberinfrastructure. In addition, it is essential to prepare the next-generation workforce to develop, maintain, and employ the infrastructure to advance science. Large facilities hold the promise of major discoveries and revolutionary advances that can propel whole fields forward, thereby justifying significant investment costs. These facilities also are training grounds for the scientists and engineers of tomorrow. Smaller, so-called “mid-scale” instruments are increasingly critical for enabling fundamental research in the experimental sciences; there is an urgent need to adequately provide this category of instrumentation. Advanced computational and data resources and cyberinfrastructure take many forms and are essential to S&E research. Balancing investments in the development and operation of these tools and capabilities with the rest of NSF’s portfolio is a challenging management responsibility. Special challenges derive from life cycle planning, human capital development, and the curation, distribution, and management of the explosion of data being produced in all fields of research. As with all NSF awards, infrastructure projects must meet extremely high standards of scientific merit and broader impacts, and comparable standards of project planning and execution.
Priority Goals
Statement:
Increase public access to NSF-funded peer-reviewed publications. By September 30, 2015, NSF-funded investigators will be able to deposit versions of their peer-reviewed articles in a repository that will make them available to the public.
Description:
Progress in science and technology, and the associated benefits for the American people, thrives in an environment of open communication. Therefore, the National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to enable increased access to the results of its investments in research. NSF will do this by reducing barriers to communication of research results, while ensuring the integrity of the research record, protection of sensitive information, and consistency with existing law. To this end and pursuant to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum, Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research (February 22, 2013), NSF will articulate a strategy and develop plans that will require recipients of NSF funding to deposit a copy of their work in a public access repository. Although some conditions of deposit are likely to vary, NSF expects to adhere to the OSTP recommended guideline for peer-reviewed journal publications that will delay free access to either the author’s final accepted version of the manuscript or the published version of record no longer than 12 months after date of initial publication.
Strategic Goal:
Stimulate Innovation and Address Societal Needs through Research and Education
Statement:
Stimulate Innovation and Address Societal Needs through Research and Education
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Strengthen the links between fundamental research and societal needs through investments and partnerships
Description:
The first part of NSF’s mission, as expanded by the first strategic goal, is to create new knowledge and expand the Nation’s intellectual capital. However, NSF's mission does not end there. We also must connect new knowledge to innovations that address societal needs above and beyond the need for advancement in science. This strategic objective is aimed at developing connections between new insights and global challenges (often involving essential interdisciplinary collaborations, prototypes, and technologies). It also entails educating a workforce capable of using and adapting discoveries to meet society’s needs.
One approach to developing these connections is through partnerships involving other government agencies and private and international entities. Such partnerships leverage NSF resources and help ensure that fundamental research outcomes are translated into benefits to society.
Priority Goal: Increase the Nation’s Data Science Capacity
Statement:
Improve the Nation’s capacity in data science by investing in the development of human capital and infrastructure.
By September 30th, 2015, implement mechanisms to support the training and workforce development of future data scientists; increase the number of multi-stakeholder partnerships to address the nation’s big-data challenges; and increase investments in current and future data infrastructure extending data –intensive science into more research communities.
Description:
Innovative information technologies are transforming the fabric of society, and data represent a transformative new currency for science, education, government, and commerce. Data are everywhere; they are produced in rapidly increasing volume and variety by virtually all scientific, educational, governmental, societal and commercial enterprises. (For more information see “Dealing with Data,” Science Magazine, Volume 331, February 11, 2011.)
Today we live in an era of data and information. This era is enabled by modern experimental methods and observational studies; large-scale simulations; scientific instruments, such as telescopes and particle accelerators; Internet transactions, email, videos, images, and click streams; and the widespread deployment of sensors everywhere – in the environment, in our critical infrastructure, such as in bridges and smart grids, in our homes, and even on our clothing. Every day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated – so much that 90 percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/).
It is important to note that when we talk about big data it is not just the enormous volume of data that needs to be emphasized, but also the heterogeneity, velocity, and complexity that collectively create the science and engineering challenges we face today.
In December 2010, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) published a report to the President and Congress entitled: Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast-nitrd-report-2010.pdf) In that report, PCAST pointed to the research challenges involved in large-scale data management and analysis and the critical role of Networking and Information Technology (NIT) in moving from data to knowledge to action, underpinning the Nation’s future prosperity, health and security.
Through long-term, sustained investments in foundational computing, communications and computational research, and the development and deployment of large-scale facilities and cyberinfrastructure, federal agency R&D investments over the past several decades have both helped generate this explosion of data as well as advance our ability to capture, store, analyze, and use these data for societal benefit. More specifically, we have seen fundamental advances in machine learning, knowledge representation, natural language processing, information retrieval and integration, network analytics, computer vision, and data visualization, which together have enabled Big Data applications and systems that have the potential to transform all aspects of our lives.
These investments are already starting to pay off, demonstrating the power of Big Data approaches across science, engineering, medicine, commerce, education, and national security, and laying the foundations for U.S. competitiveness for many decades to come. But much more needs to be done, particularly in four areas: 1) basic research; 2) data infrastructure; 3) education and workforce development; and 4) community outreach.
NSF can catalyze progress in these areas by developing programs to engage the research community, and by creating mechanisms to catalyze the development of people and infrastructure to address the challenges posed by this new flood of data.
NSF will help increase the number of data scientists engaged in academic research, development, and implementation. As defined in the 2005 NSB publication of Long-lived Digital Data Collections: Enabling Research and Education in the 21st Century defines data scientists as “the information and computer scientists, database and software programmers, disciplinary experts, curators, and expert annotators, librarians, archivists and others, who are crucial to the successful management of a digital data collection.”
Using its ability to convene diverse sets of stakeholders, NSF will promote multi-stakeholder partnerships by supporting workshops and follow-on activities that bring together representatives of industry, academia, not-for-profit organizations, and other entities to address current and future big-data challenges. NSF will also leverage existing programs, such as the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) and the Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) programs, and create new programs and tracks to current programs, as needed, to support the creation of more researchers and students competent in the deep analytical and technical skills required to address those challenges.
NSF will develop strategies to build and sustain data infrastructure for the 21st century through CIF21.
NSF will coordinate with other agencies through the National Science and Technology Council to achieve this goal.
Statement:
Build the capacity of the Nation to address societal challenges using a suite of formal, informal, and broadly available STEM educational mechanisms.
Description:
NSF has the opportunity and responsibility to leverage our research and education activities to engage the public and help citizens develop a better understanding of science-- one that can inform opinions about issues faced in daily living, in participation in the democratic process, and in helping to advance science. Formal education through the Nation’s K-12 schools provides the foundation for citizens’ understanding of STEM and its uses in addressing the needs of society. This learning continues for those who further their education in the Nation’s colleges and universities. Informal education is another powerful means to provide learning and instill interest in STEM topics in everyone throughout their lives. Technology holds promise for new pathways to learning, including personalized learning. By investing in research and development on STEM education and learning, NSF extends the reach of our programs to the public.
Priority Goal: Invest strategically in public participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research (PPSR)
Statement:
Build the capacity of the Nation to solve research challenges and improve learning by investing strategically in crowdsourcing and other forms of public participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research (PPSR).
By September 30, 2017, NSF will implement mechanisms to expand and deepen the engagement of the public in research.
Description:
Problem/Opportunity:
Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers have involved the public in their research efforts to solve challenging problems for centuries in a variety of fields. For example, daily precipitation data collected by volunteers throughout the US have been used to develop more accurate, fine-grained models that improve weather forecasting, agriculture, and disaster risk analyses. Water quality and wildlife monitoring projects allow communities to understand their local environments in systematic ways and allow them to compare their findings with those from other areas. These types of activities have been referred to in a variety of ways. For this Agency Priority Goal, "Public Participation in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Research" (PPSR) is used as an overarching term that includes citizen science, crowdsourcing research, and similar activities.
PPSR has grown significantly in the past decade, in part due to new technological tools that facilitate interactions between scientists and participants. There are a number of economic, societal, and technological trends that are increasing the variety and value of what public participation in research can accomplish. These trends include: the democratization of the tools needed to design and make a variety of items; the Maker Movement; the emergence of online communities with shared interests in projects such as exploration of diverse fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by members of the public; and crowdfunding platforms that allow teams to raise funding for their projects.
New technological tools also have facilitated crowdsourcing research, a process in which open calls are made for voluntary contributions to STEM problem-solving. These calls are typically either to a non-specified group of individuals ("the crowd") or to individuals with specific expertise, thus leveraging the skills and knowledge of many.
Without public participants and their contributions, some STEM research that addresses challenging problems would not be practical or even possible, e.g., projects mandating data collection from many geographical locations or over long periods of time or projects that require expertise for analysis of data as well as large sets of visual or numeric data. PPSR approaches hold promise to continue to address new research questions and contribute to ongoing STEM research. Moreover, citizen science and crowdsourcing research provide opportunities for the broadest possible participation in learning how STEM research is done and in engaging in it directly. Participants include individuals from urban, suburban and rural communities; diverse economic, geographic, racial, ethnic, gender, and linguistic groups; and individuals with a range of abilities and disabilities.
The motivation for PPSR may be derived from community concerns or may be researcher-led. The level of public involvement varies from being contributory (e.g., collecting and recording data) to collaborative (e.g., analyzing samples and discussing results) to co-created (in which the public might be involved in all phases of the scientific process from defining the question for investigation, to experimenting, analyzing, and reporting). Thus, people with various interests and abilities are often able to participate and contribute productively.
With the opportunity to reach more people and therefore collect and analyze data sets more extensively than possible through the efforts of scientists alone, PPSR may go beyond simply enhancing our ability to do traditional STEM research better. Citizen science and crowdsourcing science enable us to pursue entirely new avenues of research and development that can only be achieved through public-scientist collaborations. The different perspectives and habits of mind that public participants can bring to bear on the interpretation of data may also open new avenues of research and development.
Over the past decade, NSF has funded hundreds of STEM research projects that rely on PPSR across a diverse array of fields. The scope of PPSR is broad and encompasses geosciences and biological sciences, technology and engineering, social and behavioral sciences, education, computer and information sciences, and physical sciences. These projects collectively have created a strong foundation for future PPSR activities and have identified areas for potential improvement and expansion. The next phase of NSF investments will expand beyond project-by-project approaches to explore underlying issues and areas for innovation. In particular, this next phase could help identify: new research challenges that might be addressed using PPSR; new PPSR-enabling technology; social aspects of working with the public; effective PPSR program design; learning experience facilitated by PPSR; ways in which PPSR can broaden participation in STEM; and a myriad of data-related issues, including data quality and collection, data management, visualization, and data ownership models. This phase of investments should also prompt the broader community to tackle long-standing but unresolved STEM challenges and to open doors to new STEM research areas.
To achieve this Agency Priority Goal NSF will use three specific mechanisms to fund proposals that explicitly include PPSR approaches: Research Coordination Networks (RCNs), EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGERs), and supplements to existing awards. Research Coordination Networks support communication and coordination across disciplinary, organizational, institutional, and geographic boundaries, thus facilitating ongoing activities above the project level. EAGERs are designed as "high risk-high payoff" awards. These types of awards will likely push our collective understandings of how PPSR is leveraged to support scientific discovery and the public's engagement with research. Supplements to existing awards provide opportunities to (1) include PPSR approaches in projects that are appropriate for PPSR but haven't already incorporated PPSR approaches and (2) for other projects to deepen their use of PPSR approaches.
This Agency Priority Goal also takes advantage of the Executive Branch's momentum in this area. For example, the White House honored Citizen Science Champions of Change and included citizen science projects and opportunities in its recent science fair. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) rolled out a new toolkit for federal-sponsored PPSR projects on September 30, 2015 and issued a memo with actions for federal agencies with respect to PPSR. Among the public communities that NSF serves, this Agency Priority Goal is relevant and timely. It addresses the need for investments in PPSR as articulated in recent journals, such as Science; at conferences, such as the citizen science pre-conference workshop at AAAS in 2015; and by practitioner organizations, such as the Citizen Science Association.
Relationship to agency strategic goals and objectives
PPSR projects have both scientific value and educational value. Thus, PPSR supports NSF Strategic Goal 1, Objective 1 ("Invest in fundamental research to ensure significant continuing advances across science, engineering, and education") and NSF Strategic Goal 2, Objective 2 ("Build the capacity of the Nation to address societal challenges using a suite of formal, informal and broadly available STEM educational mechanisms").
Key barriers and challenges to its achievement
1. Coordinate cross-program and cross-directorate investments that enhance both an understanding of and ability to implement PPSR approaches.
2. Manage expectations among colleagues across the federal government and public sphere as PPSR is further developed to support their daily work.
External factors
OSTP and the Federal Community of Practice for Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing (FCPCSC) have directly contributed to development of this Agency Priority Goal. In addition, activities by federal agencies and offices related to open innovation, citizen science, and crowdsourcing research will inform the state of the field with respect to challenges and opportunities in PPSR.
Priority Goals
Statement:
Improve the Nation’s capacity in data science by investing in the development of human capital and infrastructure.
By September 30th, 2015, implement mechanisms to support the training and workforce development of future data scientists; increase the number of multi-stakeholder partnerships to address the nation’s big-data challenges; and increase investments in current and future data infrastructure extending data –intensive science into more research communities.
Description:
Innovative information technologies are transforming the fabric of society, and data represent a transformative new currency for science, education, government, and commerce. Data are everywhere; they are produced in rapidly increasing volume and variety by virtually all scientific, educational, governmental, societal and commercial enterprises. (For more information see “Dealing with Data,” Science Magazine, Volume 331, February 11, 2011.)
Today we live in an era of data and information. This era is enabled by modern experimental methods and observational studies; large-scale simulations; scientific instruments, such as telescopes and particle accelerators; Internet transactions, email, videos, images, and click streams; and the widespread deployment of sensors everywhere – in the environment, in our critical infrastructure, such as in bridges and smart grids, in our homes, and even on our clothing. Every day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated – so much that 90 percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/).
It is important to note that when we talk about big data it is not just the enormous volume of data that needs to be emphasized, but also the heterogeneity, velocity, and complexity that collectively create the science and engineering challenges we face today.
In December 2010, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) published a report to the President and Congress entitled: Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast-nitrd-report-2010.pdf) In that report, PCAST pointed to the research challenges involved in large-scale data management and analysis and the critical role of Networking and Information Technology (NIT) in moving from data to knowledge to action, underpinning the Nation’s future prosperity, health and security.
Through long-term, sustained investments in foundational computing, communications and computational research, and the development and deployment of large-scale facilities and cyberinfrastructure, federal agency R&D investments over the past several decades have both helped generate this explosion of data as well as advance our ability to capture, store, analyze, and use these data for societal benefit. More specifically, we have seen fundamental advances in machine learning, knowledge representation, natural language processing, information retrieval and integration, network analytics, computer vision, and data visualization, which together have enabled Big Data applications and systems that have the potential to transform all aspects of our lives.
These investments are already starting to pay off, demonstrating the power of Big Data approaches across science, engineering, medicine, commerce, education, and national security, and laying the foundations for U.S. competitiveness for many decades to come. But much more needs to be done, particularly in four areas: 1) basic research; 2) data infrastructure; 3) education and workforce development; and 4) community outreach.
NSF can catalyze progress in these areas by developing programs to engage the research community, and by creating mechanisms to catalyze the development of people and infrastructure to address the challenges posed by this new flood of data.
NSF will help increase the number of data scientists engaged in academic research, development, and implementation. As defined in the 2005 NSB publication of Long-lived Digital Data Collections: Enabling Research and Education in the 21st Century defines data scientists as “the information and computer scientists, database and software programmers, disciplinary experts, curators, and expert annotators, librarians, archivists and others, who are crucial to the successful management of a digital data collection.”
Using its ability to convene diverse sets of stakeholders, NSF will promote multi-stakeholder partnerships by supporting workshops and follow-on activities that bring together representatives of industry, academia, not-for-profit organizations, and other entities to address current and future big-data challenges. NSF will also leverage existing programs, such as the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) and the Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) programs, and create new programs and tracks to current programs, as needed, to support the creation of more researchers and students competent in the deep analytical and technical skills required to address those challenges.
NSF will develop strategies to build and sustain data infrastructure for the 21st century through CIF21.
NSF will coordinate with other agencies through the National Science and Technology Council to achieve this goal.
Strategic Goal:
Excel as a Federal Science Agency
Statement:
Excel as a Federal Science Agency
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Use effective methods and innovative solutions to achieve excellence in accomplishing the agency’s mission
Description:
NSF can accomplish our mission only when our operational and administrative enterprise functions work seamlessly with the front-line organizations they support. A wide range of services--including human resources; performance management; information technology (IT); financial, procurement, and administrative support--provide the wherewithal for the agency’s program staff and leadership to make critical investments in science, research, engineering, and education.
The agency uses three key strategies to achieve organizational excellence: openness, inclusion, and effectiveness. Openness and inclusion are achieved when we conduct business in a transparent, collaborative, and participatory manner with all stakeholders. Continuous, clear communication with all parties is a hallmark of openness and inclusion. An organization is effective when all business processes work to optimize administrative efficiencies, provide business intelligence for data-driven decision making, and enable organizational agility.
An essential mechanism that NSF uses to accomplish our mission is the competitive merit review of research proposals. We have developed a strong business and operations model that is emulated around the world. This model uses frontline U.S. researchers who have the best sense of where opportunities for major advances lie to evaluate proposals for original research. NSF accepts proposals in a manner that represents an open portal for new ideas in all fields, including interdisciplinary proposals. Whether they are submitted in response to open funding opportunities or for formal targeted solicitations, the proposals undergo merit review, with the subject matter experts (peers) assessing the intellectual merits and broader impacts of the proposed research. This merit review may take many forms, but all are designed to provide NSF program officers with the information they need to make award recommendations from among the (usually) large number of high-quality possibilities. The agency’s IT systems are critical to the process, facilitating the flow of proposals through the merit review, award, and oversight processes. External members of the research community periodically assess the quality of the merit review process as a means of accountability for NSF management and staff. Construction and operation of large scientific instruments and infrastructure efforts present added challenges. NSF requires extensive project execution plans, including detailed work scope, milestone schedules, and risk management; progress is monitored continually by NSF staff using extensive Earned Value Management (EVM) data, supplemented by in-depth external reviews conducted at least once a year.
Statement:
Build an increasingly diverse, engaged, and high-performing workforce by fostering excellence in recruitment, training, leadership, and management of human capital.
Description:
NSF is only as capable as the people who make up the organization. Therefore, recruiting and retaining the best staff in all of our organization’s roles is of utmost importance. This strategic objective focuses on those aspects of recruitment, skill enhancement, leadership, and management of human capital that serve as the foundation for effective support of NSF’s people and mission. NSF recognizes the importance of building diversity in our staff, and ensuring that our staff stays current to match priority mission responsibilities. As an agency at the cutting edge of research and education, NSF also understands that the skills needed to carry out the agency’s work are constantly changing, and, as a result, on-going training is necessary for functions needed today and in the future. An excellent organization requires both vision and direction from our leadership, as well as a constant dialogue with the staff about potential change. It must be a dialogue in which all voices are heard and all contributions are valued. NSF looks to these dimensions of human capital management in order to share with all employees how they play a vital part in maximizing NSF’s performance.
Priority Goals
Statement:
Improve agency and awardee efficiency by leveling the award of grants across the fiscal year. By September 30, 2015, meet targets to level distribution of awards across the fiscal year and subsequently improve awardee capacity to effectively manage research funding.
Description:
NSF typically awards half of its nearly 20,000 funded grant actions in the 4th quarter due to the fact that almost 75 percent of proposals and funding requests are recommended for award during the last half of the fiscal year. This unbalanced award workload is largely a result of clustered proposal deadlines, as well as due to annual budget delays, uncertainties of final allocations, and program practice of making funding decisions late in the fiscal year. Issuing such a high volume of awards in a compressed time period during the end of the fiscal year not only strains NSF’s workforce, and other resources such as IT business systems and space for conducting review panels, but also increases risk and places added stress on awardee capabilities coinciding with these peak workload periods.
Adopting strategies that address calendar management, operating procedures, and potential IT improvements should result in improved efficiencies that mitigate the negative impacts of the current imbalanced award distribution for both NSF and the nation’s scientific research community, supporting NSF’s strategic goal to excel as a federal science agency. Spreading proposal deadlines and leveling issuance of awards in a more balanced approach across the fiscal year would provide for more optimal utilization of limited resources to administer and manage research funding and therefore improve award compliance and overall stewardship of federal research dollars. Realizing improved efficiency in the administration of federally sponsored scientific research would also help to further reduce administrative burden and enable research to be initiated and executed more efficiently across the research community.
Implementation of this goal will require the full support of all program directorates and offices that make funding recommendations to NSF awarding divisions. Implementation teams will be established in each program directorate and office to develop approaches that consider the full proposal cycle and are sensible for each program area (e.g., polar programs may need to time funding solicitation deadlines and subsequent recommendations in a manner that accommodates the logistical concerns associated with operating in an extreme weather environment). NSF’s Office of Budget, Finance and Award Management (BFA) divisions will support the program directorates and offices in this effort by working with each of the implementation teams to suggest options for consideration, to foster pilot approaches, and to assist in the clearance process which impacts the release and timing of proposal solicitation deadlines.
Expand All
FY16-17 Agency Priority Goals
An Agency Priority Goal is a near-term result or achievement that agency leadership wants to accomplish within approximately 24 months that relies predominantly on agency implementation as opposed to budget or legislative accomplishments. Click below to see this agency's FY16-17 Priority Goals.
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
Improve STEM graduate student preparedness for entering the workforce.
By September 30, 2017, NSF will fund at least three summer institutes and 75 supplements to existing awards to provide STEM doctoral students with opportunities to expand their knowledge and skills to prepare for a range of careers.
Description:
A strong global economy is reliant on the ability to capitalize on technical innovations that result from a skilled and agile STEM workforce. As a result, the Nation’s scientific workforce must evolve and mature to include more doctoral level researchers in positions outside of academia. These positions require comprehensive preparation in science at the graduate level, as well as proficiency in other critical skills.
Surveys of graduate students analyzed in recent reports have demonstrated that graduate student training has not kept pace with STEM workforce needs beyond traditional roles in academia. In recent years there has been a shift in the job market for science and engineering doctorate holder that has resulted in more varied career choices. Scientists and engineers with doctorates are now more evenly split between the business sector (45%) and the education sector (46%) (Source: Survey of Earned Doctorates, National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics 2013). Within the education sector, over 90 percent of doctorates are employed at 4-year institutions. However, Ph.D. training remains largely focused on preparation for the research component of academic careers with an emphasis on skills needed at research institutions. There is considerable value to traditional academic training, which can provide doctoral graduates with experience in critical thinking as well as oral and written communication
The purpose of this Priority Goal is to provide opportunities for science and engineering doctoral students so they can acquire the knowledge, experience, and skills needed for highly productive careers, inside and outside of academe. Although investments in the Graduate Research Internship Program (GRIP) and Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (GROW) provide support across disciplines that help address this issue, a larger, agency-wide effort directed at the specific goal of determining effective approaches to increased graduate student preparedness is needed.
The activities in this APG will be undertaken in coordination with NSF’s forthcoming strategic plan for investment in graduate students and graduate education. In addition, these approaches will be reported at the NSTC Committee on STEM Education’s Interagency Working Group on Graduate Education (co-chaired by NSF and NIH) as a possible model for consideration by other agencies.
The activities in this APG will be undertaken in coordination with NSF’s forthcoming strategic framework for investment in graduate education. In addition, these approaches will be reported at the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Committee on STEM Education’s Interagency Working Group on Graduate Education (co-chaired by NSF and NIH).
The NSTC Committee on STEM notes that “tomorrow’s STEM workforce will need to include effective change makers and entrepreneurs in business, public service, civil society, and academia. Some universities are encouraging students to set and meet more ambitious goals for their research, education, and service; giving students greater autonomy earlier in their career; connecting students to real-world problems at a regional, national, and global level; and involving students in the design of university curricula, research initiatives, and collaborations with external partners.” This APG will explore ways to partner with universities to identify and spread promising practices for achieving this vision.
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
Build the capacity of the Nation to solve research challenges and improve learning by investing strategically in crowdsourcing and other forms of public participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research (PPSR).
By September 30, 2017, NSF will implement mechanisms to expand and deepen the engagement of the public in research.
Description:
Problem/Opportunity:
Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers have involved the public in their research efforts to solve challenging problems for centuries in a variety of fields. For example, daily precipitation data collected by volunteers throughout the US have been used to develop more accurate, fine-grained models that improve weather forecasting, agriculture, and disaster risk analyses. Water quality and wildlife monitoring projects allow communities to understand their local environments in systematic ways and allow them to compare their findings with those from other areas. These types of activities have been referred to in a variety of ways. For this Agency Priority Goal, "Public Participation in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Research" (PPSR) is used as an overarching term that includes citizen science, crowdsourcing research, and similar activities.
PPSR has grown significantly in the past decade, in part due to new technological tools that facilitate interactions between scientists and participants. There are a number of economic, societal, and technological trends that are increasing the variety and value of what public participation in research can accomplish. These trends include: the democratization of the tools needed to design and make a variety of items; the Maker Movement; the emergence of online communities with shared interests in projects such as exploration of diverse fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by members of the public; and crowdfunding platforms that allow teams to raise funding for their projects.
New technological tools also have facilitated crowdsourcing research, a process in which open calls are made for voluntary contributions to STEM problem-solving. These calls are typically either to a non-specified group of individuals ("the crowd") or to individuals with specific expertise, thus leveraging the skills and knowledge of many.
Without public participants and their contributions, some STEM research that addresses challenging problems would not be practical or even possible, e.g., projects mandating data collection from many geographical locations or over long periods of time or projects that require expertise for analysis of data as well as large sets of visual or numeric data. PPSR approaches hold promise to continue to address new research questions and contribute to ongoing STEM research. Moreover, citizen science and crowdsourcing research provide opportunities for the broadest possible participation in learning how STEM research is done and in engaging in it directly. Participants include individuals from urban, suburban and rural communities; diverse economic, geographic, racial, ethnic, gender, and linguistic groups; and individuals with a range of abilities and disabilities.
The motivation for PPSR may be derived from community concerns or may be researcher-led. The level of public involvement varies from being contributory (e.g., collecting and recording data) to collaborative (e.g., analyzing samples and discussing results) to co-created (in which the public might be involved in all phases of the scientific process from defining the question for investigation, to experimenting, analyzing, and reporting). Thus, people with various interests and abilities are often able to participate and contribute productively.
With the opportunity to reach more people and therefore collect and analyze data sets more extensively than possible through the efforts of scientists alone, PPSR may go beyond simply enhancing our ability to do traditional STEM research better. Citizen science and crowdsourcing science enable us to pursue entirely new avenues of research and development that can only be achieved through public-scientist collaborations. The different perspectives and habits of mind that public participants can bring to bear on the interpretation of data may also open new avenues of research and development.
Over the past decade, NSF has funded hundreds of STEM research projects that rely on PPSR across a diverse array of fields. The scope of PPSR is broad and encompasses geosciences and biological sciences, technology and engineering, social and behavioral sciences, education, computer and information sciences, and physical sciences. These projects collectively have created a strong foundation for future PPSR activities and have identified areas for potential improvement and expansion. The next phase of NSF investments will expand beyond project-by-project approaches to explore underlying issues and areas for innovation. In particular, this next phase could help identify: new research challenges that might be addressed using PPSR; new PPSR-enabling technology; social aspects of working with the public; effective PPSR program design; learning experience facilitated by PPSR; ways in which PPSR can broaden participation in STEM; and a myriad of data-related issues, including data quality and collection, data management, visualization, and data ownership models. This phase of investments should also prompt the broader community to tackle long-standing but unresolved STEM challenges and to open doors to new STEM research areas.
To achieve this Agency Priority Goal NSF will use three specific mechanisms to fund proposals that explicitly include PPSR approaches: Research Coordination Networks (RCNs), EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGERs), and supplements to existing awards. Research Coordination Networks support communication and coordination across disciplinary, organizational, institutional, and geographic boundaries, thus facilitating ongoing activities above the project level. EAGERs are designed as "high risk-high payoff" awards. These types of awards will likely push our collective understandings of how PPSR is leveraged to support scientific discovery and the public's engagement with research. Supplements to existing awards provide opportunities to (1) include PPSR approaches in projects that are appropriate for PPSR but haven't already incorporated PPSR approaches and (2) for other projects to deepen their use of PPSR approaches.
This Agency Priority Goal also takes advantage of the Executive Branch's momentum in this area. For example, the White House honored Citizen Science Champions of Change and included citizen science projects and opportunities in its recent science fair. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) rolled out a new toolkit for federal-sponsored PPSR projects on September 30, 2015 and issued a memo with actions for federal agencies with respect to PPSR. Among the public communities that NSF serves, this Agency Priority Goal is relevant and timely. It addresses the need for investments in PPSR as articulated in recent journals, such as Science; at conferences, such as the citizen science pre-conference workshop at AAAS in 2015; and by practitioner organizations, such as the Citizen Science Association.
Relationship to agency strategic goals and objectives
PPSR projects have both scientific value and educational value. Thus, PPSR supports NSF Strategic Goal 1, Objective 1 ("Invest in fundamental research to ensure significant continuing advances across science, engineering, and education") and NSF Strategic Goal 2, Objective 2 ("Build the capacity of the Nation to address societal challenges using a suite of formal, informal and broadly available STEM educational mechanisms").
Key barriers and challenges to its achievement
1. Coordinate cross-program and cross-directorate investments that enhance both an understanding of and ability to implement PPSR approaches.
2. Manage expectations among colleagues across the federal government and public sphere as PPSR is further developed to support their daily work.
External factors
OSTP and the Federal Community of Practice for Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing (FCPCSC) have directly contributed to development of this Agency Priority Goal. In addition, activities by federal agencies and offices related to open innovation, citizen science, and crowdsourcing research will inform the state of the field with respect to challenges and opportunities in PPSR.
Expand All
FY14-15 Agency Priority Goals
An Agency Priority Goal is a near-term result or achievement that agency leadership wants to accomplish within approximately 24 months that relies predominantly on agency implementation as opposed to budget or legislative accomplishments. Click below to see this agency's FY14-15 Priority Goals.
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
Increase public access to NSF-funded peer-reviewed publications. By September 30, 2015, NSF-funded investigators will be able to deposit versions of their peer-reviewed articles in a repository that will make them available to the public.
Description:
Progress in science and technology, and the associated benefits for the American people, thrives in an environment of open communication. Therefore, the National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to enable increased access to the results of its investments in research. NSF will do this by reducing barriers to communication of research results, while ensuring the integrity of the research record, protection of sensitive information, and consistency with existing law. To this end and pursuant to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum, Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research (February 22, 2013), NSF will articulate a strategy and develop plans that will require recipients of NSF funding to deposit a copy of their work in a public access repository. Although some conditions of deposit are likely to vary, NSF expects to adhere to the OSTP recommended guideline for peer-reviewed journal publications that will delay free access to either the author’s final accepted version of the manuscript or the published version of record no longer than 12 months after date of initial publication.
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
Improve the Nation’s capacity in data science by investing in the development of human capital and infrastructure.
By September 30th, 2015, implement mechanisms to support the training and workforce development of future data scientists; increase the number of multi-stakeholder partnerships to address the nation’s big-data challenges; and increase investments in current and future data infrastructure extending data –intensive science into more research communities.
Description:
Innovative information technologies are transforming the fabric of society, and data represent a transformative new currency for science, education, government, and commerce. Data are everywhere; they are produced in rapidly increasing volume and variety by virtually all scientific, educational, governmental, societal and commercial enterprises. (For more information see “Dealing with Data,” Science Magazine, Volume 331, February 11, 2011.)
Today we live in an era of data and information. This era is enabled by modern experimental methods and observational studies; large-scale simulations; scientific instruments, such as telescopes and particle accelerators; Internet transactions, email, videos, images, and click streams; and the widespread deployment of sensors everywhere – in the environment, in our critical infrastructure, such as in bridges and smart grids, in our homes, and even on our clothing. Every day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated – so much that 90 percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/).
It is important to note that when we talk about big data it is not just the enormous volume of data that needs to be emphasized, but also the heterogeneity, velocity, and complexity that collectively create the science and engineering challenges we face today.
In December 2010, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) published a report to the President and Congress entitled: Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast-nitrd-report-2010.pdf) In that report, PCAST pointed to the research challenges involved in large-scale data management and analysis and the critical role of Networking and Information Technology (NIT) in moving from data to knowledge to action, underpinning the Nation’s future prosperity, health and security.
Through long-term, sustained investments in foundational computing, communications and computational research, and the development and deployment of large-scale facilities and cyberinfrastructure, federal agency R&D investments over the past several decades have both helped generate this explosion of data as well as advance our ability to capture, store, analyze, and use these data for societal benefit. More specifically, we have seen fundamental advances in machine learning, knowledge representation, natural language processing, information retrieval and integration, network analytics, computer vision, and data visualization, which together have enabled Big Data applications and systems that have the potential to transform all aspects of our lives.
These investments are already starting to pay off, demonstrating the power of Big Data approaches across science, engineering, medicine, commerce, education, and national security, and laying the foundations for U.S. competitiveness for many decades to come. But much more needs to be done, particularly in four areas: 1) basic research; 2) data infrastructure; 3) education and workforce development; and 4) community outreach.
NSF can catalyze progress in these areas by developing programs to engage the research community, and by creating mechanisms to catalyze the development of people and infrastructure to address the challenges posed by this new flood of data.
NSF will help increase the number of data scientists engaged in academic research, development, and implementation. As defined in the 2005 NSB publication of Long-lived Digital Data Collections: Enabling Research and Education in the 21st Century defines data scientists as “the information and computer scientists, database and software programmers, disciplinary experts, curators, and expert annotators, librarians, archivists and others, who are crucial to the successful management of a digital data collection.”
Using its ability to convene diverse sets of stakeholders, NSF will promote multi-stakeholder partnerships by supporting workshops and follow-on activities that bring together representatives of industry, academia, not-for-profit organizations, and other entities to address current and future big-data challenges. NSF will also leverage existing programs, such as the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) and the Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) programs, and create new programs and tracks to current programs, as needed, to support the creation of more researchers and students competent in the deep analytical and technical skills required to address those challenges.
NSF will develop strategies to build and sustain data infrastructure for the 21st century through CIF21.
NSF will coordinate with other agencies through the National Science and Technology Council to achieve this goal.
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
Improve agency and awardee efficiency by leveling the award of grants across the fiscal year. By September 30, 2015, meet targets to level distribution of awards across the fiscal year and subsequently improve awardee capacity to effectively manage research funding.
Description:
NSF typically awards half of its nearly 20,000 funded grant actions in the 4th quarter due to the fact that almost 75 percent of proposals and funding requests are recommended for award during the last half of the fiscal year. This unbalanced award workload is largely a result of clustered proposal deadlines, as well as due to annual budget delays, uncertainties of final allocations, and program practice of making funding decisions late in the fiscal year. Issuing such a high volume of awards in a compressed time period during the end of the fiscal year not only strains NSF’s workforce, and other resources such as IT business systems and space for conducting review panels, but also increases risk and places added stress on awardee capabilities coinciding with these peak workload periods.
Adopting strategies that address calendar management, operating procedures, and potential IT improvements should result in improved efficiencies that mitigate the negative impacts of the current imbalanced award distribution for both NSF and the nation’s scientific research community, supporting NSF’s strategic goal to excel as a federal science agency. Spreading proposal deadlines and leveling issuance of awards in a more balanced approach across the fiscal year would provide for more optimal utilization of limited resources to administer and manage research funding and therefore improve award compliance and overall stewardship of federal research dollars. Realizing improved efficiency in the administration of federally sponsored scientific research would also help to further reduce administrative burden and enable research to be initiated and executed more efficiently across the research community.
Implementation of this goal will require the full support of all program directorates and offices that make funding recommendations to NSF awarding divisions. Implementation teams will be established in each program directorate and office to develop approaches that consider the full proposal cycle and are sensible for each program area (e.g., polar programs may need to time funding solicitation deadlines and subsequent recommendations in a manner that accommodates the logistical concerns associated with operating in an extreme weather environment). NSF’s Office of Budget, Finance and Award Management (BFA) divisions will support the program directorates and offices in this effort by working with each of the implementation teams to suggest options for consideration, to foster pilot approaches, and to assist in the clearance process which impacts the release and timing of proposal solicitation deadlines.
