Enhancing Support of Transformative Research at the National Science Foundation

摘要

Congress established the National Science Board (Board) in 1950 and gave it dual statutory responsibilities: to provide oversight for, and establish the policies of NSF, and to serve as an independent body of advisors to both the President and Congress on broad national policy issues related to science and engineering research and education. Examining NSFs support of scientific research and making recommendations for improvement fall within the purview of the Boards mandate. While the substance of this report is drawn primarily from work conducted over the last 2 years, NSFs support of transformative research has been articulated as a Board priority as early as July 1999 (NSB-00-39). In 2003, Board Members discussed ways in which the Foundations management could develop new and more effective approaches to encourage, to evaluate, and to fund research that has the potential to transform disciplines. The Board assembled an ad hoc Task Group on High Risk Research to determine whether an assessment of NSFs support of transformative research was warranted. In seeking an answer, the Task Group organized a workshop to solicit a range of views on NSFs effectiveness at supporting transformative research (initially designated high-risk research). Based upon outcomes from this workshop, the Task Group concluded that opportunities to identify and fund transformative research may be inadvertently missed at NSF and that a formal assessment was warranted. Consequently, in December 2004, the Board appointed a Task Force on Transformative Research (hereafter, Task Force). Its mandate was to serve as a Board focal point for gaining a better understanding of NSF policies aimed at soliciting, identifying, and funding transformative research, to evaluate the effectiveness of these policies, and to suggest possible modifications for the Boards consideration. This report presents the Boards findings and recommendation for how NSF can enhance its ability to identify and to fund transformative research.