National Science Foundation

Established by the U.S. Congress by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, it is an independent agency of the U.S. government responsible for supporting basic research and education in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. It grants funding for research and provides support for educational programs in mathematics and sciences.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), a federal agency that subsidizes scientific research and education, was created in 1950 after several years of debate over the proper organization of national science policy. Vannevar Bush, the head of the wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development, and the West Virginia Senator Harley Kilgore both felt that an extensive federal commitment to scientific research would ensure postwar prosperity and military strength. But Bush wanted to keep control of the new agency in the hands of leading scientists, fearing that any incursion on the self-organization of researchers would jeopardize their results, while the populist Kilgore argued that the government should direct research toward pressing social and economic issues, retain ownership of patents, and redistribute resources away from the top northeastern schools.

Bush originally gained the upper hand with an influential 1945 report entitled Science—The Endless Frontier and worked out a compromise bill with Kilgore in the spring of 1946. But some prominent scientists protested that government support of science was socialistic, while others chafed at the elitist and militaristic focus of the proposed agency. Meanwhile, army and navy leaders wanted to gain control of military research for themselves. Congress managed to pass a research bill in 1947 despite such opposition, but President Harry S. Truman vetoed it, probably because he was suspicious of Bush's drive to give experts so much freedom from government oversight.

The National Science Foundation Act of 1950 applied a strict budget cap of $15 million and authorized an initial allocation of only $225,000. The organization's scope was also limited, as the expanded National Institutes of Health (NIH) and new agencies such as the Office of Naval Research, the Research and Development Board, and the Atomic Energy Commission had captured important areas of research while NSF supporters fought among themselves. Nor could the NSF support the social sciences, which Kilgore had hoped to include. The budget cap was lifted in 1953, but annual expenditures remained in the low tens of millions until the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 drew Americans' attention to the nation's scientific capacities. The NSF appropriation jumped to $134 million in 1959 and reached almost half a billion dollars by the end of the 1960s.

Despite its slow start, the NSF came to play a critical role in funding basic research in the nation's universities. In the mid-1990s, for example, the NSF provided nearly a quarter of the government's support for university research, though its research budget was only 3 percent of total federal research spending—far smaller than the shares of the Department of Defense, the NIH, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The agency's mission has also expanded since its inception. Congress changed its charter in 1968 to include applied research and the social sciences, and President Richard M. Nixon actively pushed the agency in this direction. Engineering was added in 1986, reflecting a new desire to spur industrial growth in the face of overseas competition. President Bill Clinton redoubled this industrial emphasis after 1993, but the NSF soon became embroiled in a broad debate over the role of the state, as a new class of Republican congressmen sought to reduce the size of the federal government.

Bibliography

England, J. Merton. A Patron for Pure Science: The National Science Foundation's Formative Years, 1945–1957. Washington, D.C.: National Science Foundation, 1983.

Leslie, Stuart W. The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

Smith, Bruce L. R. American Science Policy since World War II. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1990.

Wang, Jessica. "Liberals, the Progressive Left, and the Political Economy of Postwar American Science: The National Science Foundation Debate Revisited." Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 26 (Fall 1995): 139–166.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the federal government, created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (Pub. L. 81-597). The agency is responsible for promoting the progress of science and advancing the nation's health, prosperity, welfare, and security by supporting research and education in all fields of science and engineering. It is also responsible for monitoring the status of the U.S. science and engineering enterprise and for collecting and analyzing data that support the formulation of national policy.

By statute, NSF consists of the National Science Board and the director. These twenty-five eminent scientists, engineers, and administrators are appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The board is responsible for establishing NSF's policies and is mandated to advise the president and the U.S. Congress on policy matters related to science and engineering research and education. The director, who is a member of the board ex officio, is responsible for directing the programs of the agency.

Unique among federal agencies, NSF is devoted to strengthening the overall health of the science and engineering enterprise. Other federal agencies support research and education related to their specific missions, such as energy or defense. NSF's mission is to support scientific inquiry in all fields, encourage emerging areas of research, and help ensure an adequate supply of scientists, engineers, and science and engineering educators. In any year, more than 200,000 people receive support through NSF programs and activities nationwide, and millions more benefit from NSF investments in education and other areas.

With a budget of $4.7 billion for fiscal year 2002, NSF accounts for 4 percent of the total annual federal expenditure on research and development and 23 percent of federal support for all basic research performed at academic institutions. NSF provides more than a third of all federal funding in the physical sciences and about 50 percent in environmental sciences and engineering. In some fields, NSF provides the preponderant support: approximately two-thirds in mathematics and computer science research and nearly 100 percent in anthropology.

Scope of Programs

NSF investments act as a catalyst to expand new knowledge. NSF supports cutting-edge research and education in the core disciplines, ranging from mathematics, the physical and life sciences, and engineering to the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Its investments support three goals: to provide the nation with the necessary

• people - developing a diverse, internationally competitive, and globally engaged work force of scientists, engineers, and well-prepared citizens;
• ideas - enabling discovery across the frontiers of science and engineering, connected to learning, innovation, and service to society; and
• tools - providing broadly accessible research and education tools.

NSF is organized into directorates and offices, which support research and education in the various fields and administer grants to lead researchers and institutions. The directorates include biological sciences; computer and information science and engineering; education and human resources; engineering; geosciences; mathematical and physical sciences; and social, behavioral, and economic sciences.

In addition to support for core fields, NSF funds interdisciplinary research teams and centers, such as its science and technology centers, which encourage the integration of research and education. NSF also provides grants to small businesses through its Small Business Innovation Research Program to encourage them to focus on important science, engineering, and education problems and opportunities with potential for commercial and public benefit.

Partnerships among academic institutions, industry, and government entities are integral to the way NSF implements its mission. Partnerships foster the use of new knowledge to stimulate innovation that will create new wealth and benefit the public. Some major programs are the Engineering Research Centers, Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

Since its beginning, NSF has recognized that the conduct of science is intrinsically global, and the agency has encouraged international cooperation. NSF supports cooperative international activities, such as research collaborations, data sharing, and international partnerships in large-scale research facilities.

Although NSF itself operates no laboratories or research facilities, it provides funding for large, multiuser, state-of-the-art facilities, such as the Laser Interferometer Gravity Wave Observatory, the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, the International Gemini Observatory, and the Terascale Computing Facility. NSF also is the designated federal manager of the U.S. Antarctic Program.

Within NSF's broad portfolio, a few opportunities emerge that are so revolutionary that they promise to reshape science and engineering and ultimately change the way people think and live. Typically, these opportunities cross disciplinary boundaries, encompass the full range of NSF programs, and require coordination with other federal agencies. NSF investments that evolved into high-performance computing exemplify this type of emerging opportunity.

Priority areas that NSF has selected for increased attention during the early years of the twenty-first century are:

• information technology research: support for the people who will create new knowledge, and an upgrade of computational infrastructures;
• nanoscale science and engineering: research and technology at the confluence of the smallest human-made devices and the largest molecules of living systems;
• biocomplexity in the environment: the dynamic web of often-surprising interrelationships that arise when components of the global ecosystem interact; and
• learning for the twenty-first century: building and sustaining a competent, diverse work force and integrating research and education to produce that work force.

Involvement with the External Scientific Community

Researchers and educators in all fifty states and the U.S. territories receive NSF support through competitively awarded grants and cooperative agreements. More than 2,000 colleges, universities, academic consortia, pre-kindergarten through grade twelve (pre-K - 12) school systems, small businesses, nonprofit institutions, informal science organizations, and other research institutions receive such support.

Funding decisions are made through the process of competitive merit review, in which expert evaluation by external peer reviewers contributes to recommendations by NSF program managers. Each year, NSF receives approximately 30,000 proposals, solicits reviews from approximately 50,000 scientists and engineers, and funds approximately 10,000 proposals. Reviewers evaluate proposals according to two criteria:

• the intellectual merit of the proposed activity: the importance of the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields; the extent to which the proposed activity explores creative, original concepts; and
• the broader impacts of the proposed activity: how well the activity promotes teaching, training, and learning; how well it broadens the participation of underrepresented groups; and the extent of benefits to U.S. society.

In addition to the use of external reviewers, NSF recruits outstanding scientists, engineers, and mathematicians to serve on advisory committees or to join the NSF staff for short periods through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act and the Visiting Scientists, Engineers and Educators programs. Through these mechanisms, NSF involves thousands of working scientists in evaluating emerging opportunities for new knowledge and ensures its access to cutting-edge ideas in all fields of science and engineering.

Support for Education

NSF's support for research is highly integrated with its investment in science and engineering education. Thousands of students at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels contribute to research activities at their education institutions and benefit from involvement with them. In addition, each year NSF provides graduate research fellowships to approximately 900 outstanding graduate students in science, mathematics, and engineering. To provide teaching experience for graduate students and strengthen pre-K - 12 education, NSF provides graduate teaching fellowships to graduate students who assist teachers with the content of their mathematics and science classes. NSF's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeships help prepare doctoral candidates for a broad spectrum of career opportunities in education. Through its Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, NSF provides funding to educational institutions to increase the research and development competitiveness of twenty-one states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Although the integration of research and education is most obvious at the graduate and postdoctoral levels, NSF also funds pre-K - 12 science and mathematics education in state, urban, and rural school systems and invests in comprehensive reform of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. NSF supports the development of high-quality instructional materials, teacher enhancement, and the use of learning technologies in the classroom. Its funding encourages educational systems to prepare all students - not just STEM majors - for the demands of a highly technological society.

NSF's systemic initiatives in education have catalyzed change in the teaching of mathematics and science by cultivating partnerships between local school systems and other organizations involved in education. Each partnership addresses curriculum, professional development, assessment, policies, resources, stakeholder support, evaluation, and improved student performance as the ultimate goal of any reform effort. As of 2001 NSF had encouraged experiments in comprehensive reform in twenty-six states, fifty-eight urban school districts, and twenty-eight rural initiatives in regions usually composed of more than one state. In the 1999/2000 school year, NSF systemic initiatives affected 227,000 teachers in 11,900 schools with approximately 4.6 million students.

In fiscal year 2002 NSF began implementing the Math and Science Partnerships program, which provides funds for states and local school districts to join with institutions of higher education in strengthening mathematics and science education. The goals are to improve mathematics and science standards, provide teachers with mathematics and science training, and create innovative ways to reach underserved schools and students.

Bibliography

National Science Board. 2000. National Science Board: A History in Highlights, 1950 - 2000. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation.

National Science Foundation. 2000. America's Investment in the Future. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation.

National Science Foundation. 2000. Guide to Programs FY 2001. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation.

National Science Foundation. 2000. NSF GPRA Strategic Plan, FY 2001 - 2006. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation.

National Science Foundation. 2000. Resource Guide 2000: National Science Foundation Celebrating 50 Years. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation.

National Science Foundation Act of 1950. Public Law 81-597. U.S. Code. Vol. 42, secs. 1861 et seq.

U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development. 1945. Science, The Endless Frontier: A Report to the President by Vannevar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Washington, DC: U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development.

Internet Resource

National Science Foundation. 2002. www.nsf.gov.

— MARTA CEHELSKY

The National Science Foundation (NSF) directs and funds science research. An independent agency in the United States government, the NSF was established May 10, 1950, by passage of the National Science Foundation Act. Subsequent amendments to the act granted the NSF further authority to develop, fund, and oversee research in the government, academic, and industrial sectors.

The stated mission of the National Science Foundation is to promote scientific research that aids national health and prosperity, and protects national security interests. The foundation endeavors to foster communication and cooperation in the national and global science communities. A president-appointed director, deputy director, and eight assistant directors govern the agency. The foundation is further staffed by the twenty-four member National Science Board.

The NSF grants student fellowships for graduate studies in the sciences, medicine, and engineering, and sponsors post-doctoral research opportunities. Research programs backed by the NSF range in scope from disease research to space exploration. The foundation also develops science education programs for school-aged children, and cosponsors symposia, conferences, and seminars for college students and professional researchers. In conjunction with independent researchers, professional organizations, government agencies, and international scholars, the NSF publishes and revises a code of ethical research practices.

The NSF often works in conjunction with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an organization within the Department of Defense, to develop research projects with military, intelligence, and national security interests. In 2001, the two organizations cosponsored research concerning government computer systems and data security. While NSF may aid research with implications on national security and military technology, DARPA is responsible for classified weapons and technology research.

As a response to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the NSF has increased its backing of scientific research beneficial to counterterrorism. Studying epidemic disease, combating the effects of biological and chemical weapons, water and soil safety, and developing better information protection systems are some of the present science- and engineering-related national security issues addressed by NSF sponsored research.

Further Reading

Electronic

National Science Foundation. <http://www.nsf.gov> (15 January 2003).

National Science Foundation
Motto: Supporting Education and Research across all fields of Science and Technology America's Investment in the Future Where Discoveries Begin
Agency overview
Formed	10 May 1950
Headquarters	Arlington, VA
Employees	1700
Annual budget	$6.02 billion for 2008
Agency executive	Arden L. Bement Jr., Director
Website
www.nsf.gov

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is a United States government agency 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 $6.02 billion (fiscal year 2008), NSF funds approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States' colleges and universities. In some fields, such as mathematics, computer science, economics and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing.

The NSF's director, its deputy director, and the 24 members of the National Science Board (NSB)^[1] are appointed by the President of the United States, and confirmed by the United States Senate. The director and deputy director are responsible for administration, planning, budgeting and day-to-day operations of the foundation, while the NSB meets six times a year to establish its overall policies. The current NSF director is Dr. Arden L. Bement, Jr., and the current acting deputy director is Dr. Cora Marrett.^[2]

Contents 1 Grants and the merit review process 2 Scope and organization 2.1 Research directorates 2.2 Other research offices 2.3 Crosscutting programs 3 History and mission 3.1 Timeline 4 Public attitudes and understanding 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

Grants and the merit review process

Although many other federal research agencies operate their own laboratories—notable examples being the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—NSF does not. Instead, it seeks to fulfill its mission chiefly by issuing competitive, limited-term grants in response to specific proposals from the research community. (NSF also makes some contracts.) Some proposals are solicited, and some are not; NSF funds both kinds.

NSF receives about 40,000 such proposals each year, and funds about 10,000 of them. Those funded are typically the projects that are ranked highest in a merit review process. These reviews are carried out by panels of independent scientists, engineers and educators who are experts in the relevant fields of study, and who are selected by NSF with particular attention to avoiding conflicts of interest. (For example, the reviewers cannot work at NSF itself, nor for the institution that employs the proposing researchers.) All proposal evaluations are confidential (the proposing researchers may see them, but they do not see the names of the reviewers).

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 a whole. Examples of national facilities include 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 REU summer programs.^[3] Graduate students are supported through IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeships)^[4] and AGEP (Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate) programs^[5] and through the Graduate Research Fellowships, NSF-GRF. An early career-development program (CAREER) supports teacher-scholars that most effectively integrate research and education within the mission of their organization, as a foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions.^[6]

Scope and organization

National Science Foundation Building

NSF’s workforce numbers about 1700, nearly all working at its Arlington, Virginia headquarters. That includes about 1200 career employees, 150 scientists from research institutions on temporary duty, 200 contract workers, and the staff of the National Science Board office and the Office of the Inspector General, which examines the foundation's work and reports to the NSB and Congress.

Research directorates

NSF organizes its research and education support through seven directorates, each encompassing several disciplines:

• Biological Sciences (molecular, cellular, and organismal biology, environmental science)
• Computer and Information Science and Engineering (fundamental computer science, computer and networking systems, and artificial intelligence)
• Engineering (bioengineering, environmental systems, civil and mechanical systems, chemical and transport systems, electrical and communications systems, and design and manufacturing)
• Geosciences (geological, atmospheric and ocean sciences)
• Mathematical and Physical Sciences (mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and materials science)
• Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (neuroscience, management, psychology, sociology, anthropology, linguistics and economics)
• Education and Human Resources (science, technology, engineering and mathematics education at every level, pre-K to grey)

Other research offices

NSF also supports research through several offices within the Office of the Director:

• Office of Cyberinfrastructure
• Office of Polar Programs
• Office of Integrative Activities
• Office of International Science and Engineering

Crosscutting programs

In addition to the research it funds in specific disciplines, NSF has launched a number of crosscutting projects that coordinate the efforts of experts in many disciplines. Examples include initiatives in:

• Nanotechnology
• The science of learning
• Digital libraries
• The ecology of infectious diseases

In many cases, these projects involve collaborations with other U.S. federal agencies.

History and mission

The NSF was established by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950. Its stated mission:

To promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense.

Some historians of science have argued that the result was an unsatisfactory compromise between too many clashing visions of the purpose and scope of the federal government.^[7] NSF was certainly not the primary government agency for the funding of basic science, as its supporters had originally envisioned in the aftermath of World War II. By 1950, support for major areas of research had already become dominated by specialized agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (medical research) and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (nuclear and particle physics). That pattern would continue after 1957, when U.S. anxiety over the launch of Sputnik led to the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (space science) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (defense-related research).

Nonetheless, NSF's scope has expanded over 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. Today, as described in its 2003–2008 strategic plan, NSF is the only U. S. federal agency with a mandate to support all the non-medical fields of research.

In the process, moreover, the foundation has come to enjoy strong bipartisan support from Congress. Especially after the technology boom of the 1980s, both sides of the aisle have generally embraced the notion that government-funded basic research is essential for the nation's economic health and global competitiveness, as well as for the national defense. That support has manifested itself in an expanding budget—from $1 billion in 1983 to just over $6.02 billion by FY 2008. (fiscal year 2007).

Timeline

Pre-World War II 

Academic research in science and engineering is not considered a federal responsibility; almost all support comes from private contributions and charitable foundations. Governmental research into science and technology was largely uncoordinated; military research is compartmentalized to the point where different branches are often working on the same subject without realizing it.

World War II 

There is a growing awareness that America's military capability owes a great deal to the nation's strength in science and engineering. Congress considers several proposals to provide federal support for research in these fields. Separately, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sponsors the creation of several organizations to coordinate federal funding of science for the purposes of war, including the National Defense Research Committee and the Office of Scientific Research and Development.

1945 

Vannevar Bush—head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, intimately connected with the Manhattan Project, and personal acquaintance of the President—was asked by President Roosevelt in 1944 to write a report on the what should be done in the postwar to further foster government commitment to science and technology. Bush issued his report to President Harry S. Truman in July 1945, entitled Science—The Endless Frontier. The report lays out a strong case for having the federal government fund 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. The report also proposes creating a new federal agency, the "National Research Foundation," to administer this effort.

1945–1950 

Although there is broad agreement in Washington with the principle of federal support for science, there is far less agreement on exactly how that effort should be organized and managed. Thrashing out a consensus requires five years of negotiation and compromise.^[8]

1950 

On May 10, President Truman signs Public Law 507, creating the National Science Foundation. The act provides for a National Science Board of twenty-four part-time members and a director as chief executive officer, all appointed by the president.

1951 

In early March, Truman nominates Alan T. Waterman, the chief scientist at the Office of Naval Research, to become the first Director of the fledgling agency. With the Korean War underway, money is tight: the agency's initial budget is just $151,000.

1952 

After moving its administrative offices twice, NSF begins its first full year of operations with an appropriation from Congress of just $3.5 million, a figure far less the almost $33.5 million requested. Twenty-eight research grants are awarded.

1957 

On October 5, the Soviet Union orbits Sputnik 1, the first ever man-made satellite. The successful rocket launch forces a national self-appraisal that questions American education, scientific, technical and industrial strength. For 1959, Congress increases the NSF appropriation to $134 million, nearly $100 million higher than the year before. By 1968, the NSF budget will stand at nearly $500 million.

1958 

NSF selects Kitt Peak, near Tucson, Arizona, as the site of the first national observatory, a research center that would make state-of-the-art telescopes available to every astronomer in the nation. (Prior to this time, there was no equal access; major research telescopes were privately funded, and were available only to the astronomers who taught at the universities that ran them.) Today, that idea has expanded to encompass the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the National Solar Observatory, the Gemini Observatory and the Arecibo Observatory, all of which are funded in whole or in part by NSF. Along the way, moreover, NSF's astronomy program has forged a close working relationship with that of NASA, which was also founded in 1958: just as NASA has responsibility for the U. S. effort in space-based astronomy, NSF provides virtually all the U. S. federal support for ground-based astronomy.

1959 

The United States and other nations operating in Antarctica conclude a treaty that reserves the continent for peaceful and scientific research. Shortly thereafter, a presidential directive based on the treaty gives NSF the responsibility for virtually all U.S. operations and research on the continent; the U.S. Antarctic Program continues to this day.

1960 

Emphasis on international scientific and technological competition further accelerates NSF growth. The Foundation starts the Institutional Support Program, a capital funding program designed to build a research infrastructure among American universities; it will be the single largest beneficiary of NSF budget growth in the 1960s. NSF's appropriation is $152.7 million; 2,000 grants are made.

1968 

The Deep Sea Drilling Project begins. Over the years, the project reveals much new evidence about the concepts of continental drift, sea floor spreading and the general usefulness of the ocean basins. The program also becomes a model of international cooperation as several foreign countries join the operation.

1972 

NSF takes over management of twelve interdisciplinary materials research laboratories from the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). These university-based laboratories had taken 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. NSF begins to expand these laboratories into a nationwide network of Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers.

1972 : NSF launched the biennial Science & Engineering Indicators report to the President of the United States and U.S. Congress. Founded in 1968 as a research institution in bibliometrics and patent analytics ipIQ dba The Patent Board has provided patent indicators and science literature analysis since the intitial report in 1972.

1977 

The first "Internet" is developed. This interconnection of unrelated networks is run by DARPA. Over the next decade, increasing NSF involvement leads to a three-tiered system of internetworks managed by a mix of universities, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. By the mid-1980s, primary financial support for the growing project is assumed by the NSF.^[9]

1983 

The agency budget tops $1 billion for the first time. Major increases in the nation's research budget are proposed as the country recognizes the importance of research in science and technology, as well as education. A separate appropriation is established for the U.S. Antarctic Program. NSF receives more than 27,000 proposals and funds more than 12,000 of them.

1985 

In November NSF delivers ozone sensors, along with balloons and helium, to researchers at the South Pole so they can measure stratospheric ozone loss. The action is taken in response to findings made in May of that year, indicating a steep drop in ozone over a period of several years. The Internet project, now known as NSFNET, continues.

1990 

NSF's appropriation passes $2 billion for the first time.

1990s  

NSF funds the development of several curricula based on the NCTM standards, devised by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. These standards are widely adopted by school districts during the subsequent decade. However, in what newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal later call the "math wars", organizations such as Mathematically Correct complain that some elementary texts based on the standards, including Mathland, have almost entirely abandoned any instruction of traditional arithmetic in favor of cutting, coloring, pasting, and writing. During that debate, NSF is both lauded and criticized for favoring the standards.

1991 

In March, the NSFNET acceptable use policy is altered to allow commercial traffic. By 1995, with the private, commercial market thriving, NSF decommissions the NSFNET, allowing for public use of the Internet.

1993 

Students and staff working at the NSF-supported National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, develop Mosaic, 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.

1994 

NSF, together with NASA and DARPA, launches the Digital Library Initiative. One of the first six grants goes to Stanford University, where two graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, begin to develop a search engine that uses the links between Web pages as a ranking method. They will later commercialize their search engine under the name Google.

1996 

NSF-funded research establishes beyond doubt that the chemistry of the atmosphere above Antarctica is grossly abnormal and that levels of key chlorine compounds are greatly elevated. During two months of intense work, NSF researchers learn most of what we know today about the ozone hole.

1998 

Two independent teams of NSF-supported astronomers discover that the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up, as if some previously unknown force, now known as dark energy, is driving the galaxies apart at an ever increasing rate.

2000 

NSF joins with other federal agencies in the National Nanotechnology Initiative, dedicated to the understanding and control of matter at the atomic and molecular scale. Today, NSF's roughly $300 million annual investment in nanotechnology research is still one of the largest in the 23-agency initiative.

2001 

NSF's appropriation passes $4 billion.

The NSF's Survey of Public Attitudes Toward and Understanding of Science and Technology reveals that the public has a positive attitude toward science but a poor understanding of it.^[10]

2004–5 

NSF sends "rapid response" research teams to investigate the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. An NSF-funded engineering team helps uncover why the levees failed in New Orleans.

2005 

NSF's budget stands at just over $5.6 billion.

2006 

NSF's budget stands at $5.91 billion for the 2007 fiscal year that began on October 1, 2006 and runs through September 30, 2007.

2007 

NSF requests $6.43 billion dollars for FY 2008. (NSF Budgets).

Public attitudes and understanding

NSF surveys of public attitudes and knowledge have consistently shown that the public has a positive view of science but has little scientific understanding. The greatest deficit remains the public's understanding of the scientific method. Recent surveys indicate that elsewhere in the world, including Japan and Europe, public interest in science and technology is lower than in the United States, with China a notable exception. A preponderance of Americans (54%) have heard "nothing at all" about nanotechnology. ^[11]

See also

• Library of Congress Digital Library project
• National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
• United States National Academy of Sciences
• U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation
• Capital Jury Project
• International counterparts:
  • Royal Society (GB)
  • Agence Nationale de la Recherche (FR)
  • German Science Foundation (D)
  • Swiss National Science Foundation (CH)
  • Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (Dk)
  • Department of Science and Technology (PH)
  • Science Foundation Ireland (IRL)
• Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE) (largely based at Princeton University in the US)
• C-MORE, the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, an NSF Science and Technology Center
• Scientific literacy
• American Association for the Advancement of Science

References

1. ^ National Science Board (NSB)
2. ^ NSF: Staff Directory, retrieved 2009-05-25
3. ^ NSF: Summer Research
4. ^ NSF: IGERT Programs
5. ^ NSF: AGEP Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate
6. ^ nsf.gov - Funding - Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program - US National Science Foundation (NSF)
7. ^ David M. Hart, The Forged Consensus: Science, Technology, and Economic Policy in the United States, 1921–1953 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).
8. ^ George T. Mazuzan, "The National Science Foundation: A Brief History" (NSF Publication nsf8816).
9. ^ NSFNET, National Science Foundation Network
10. ^ nsf.gov - SRS Survey Descriptions - US National Science Foundation (NSF)
11. ^ Science and Engineering Indicators 2008 - Chapter 7: Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding - Information Sources, Interest, and Perceived Knowledge

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: National Science Foundation

• Official Website
• National Science Foundation Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register RSS Feed

Science and Engineering Indicators, published by the National Science Board, provides a broad base of quantitative information on the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise.

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