A golden anniversary of partnership: What every college president should know about the National Science Foundation

In higher education, we continually seek ways to advance the body of knowledge, attract and motivate professors and students, and help prepare our nation to continue its role as an international leader in education, science, and technology. For 50 years, one of academia's greatest allies in meeting these goals has been the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Readers are no doubt familiar with at least some of the programs supported by the NSF. Many of us have directly or indirectly participated in NSF-funded research. So, it is fitting that on the occasion of the NSF's 50th anniversary, we take a moment to reflect on the mission and accomplishments of this unique agency and the ways in which it has supported academia in the past and will continue to help us prepare for the future.

In my opinion, no alliance has had a greater impact on the growth of knowledge through basic research than the NSF's partnership with American colleges and universities. With a budget significantly smaller than that of many other agencies, it has enabled discovery by awarding research grants, providing graduate fellowships, and serving as a conduit for the sharing of information and knowledge. As we face the challenges of a new century and a new millennium, and the changing rules of an economy driven by information technology, American colleges and universities are indeed fortunate to have such a partner.

The National Science Foundation was created in 1950 as an independent federal agency, charged with promoting research and education in science, mathematics, and engineering, across all fields and at all levels. Traditionally, research has been defined as either basic, in which participants seek to learn more about a subject or area without specific applications in mind, or applied (mission-oriented), which is directed toward a particular issue or objective. Although the NSF's primary role is the funding of basic research, it takes the view that all publicly-funded research advances the frontiers of knowledge, and that the two types of research are often "comfortably inseparable," rather than mutually exclusive.

Basic Research and the Academic Mission

As a university professor, naturally I have a personal preference for basic research, because it clearly supports our mission as educational institutions. Through inherent flexibility and adaptability, basic research reflects real-world realities and allows us to widen our field of vision. We know from experience that many of our most amazing and useful discoveries were the products of basic research. The freedom to explore alternatives and even to change directions has often yielded serendipitous results.

For example, in 1969 the first electronic message was sent via what became the ARPANET, giving researchers access to leading computer facilities. The potential for full scale e-mail was an afterthought. The foundation for today's ubiquitous Internet was spawned through the NSFNet of the 1980s, which was the first "network of networks." The first widely used Internet router was developed by an NSF grantee at the University of Delaware, while the Web browser was developed at the supercomputing center at the University of Illinois, one of five original centers sponsored by the NSF.

The list of NSF-supported innovations is impressive in its variety and scope. Some of the more recognizable include polar research, Doppler radar, artificial skin, buckeyballs, camcorders, ink jet printers, advances in biotechnology, and the instrumentation that made Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) a practical medical diagnostic tool.

In 1987, the NSF established the Science and Technology Center program to fund important basic research activities. These activities have also created numerous educational opportunities. Since its inception, the STC program has grown to include more than 36 colleges and universities, along with government laboratories. Berkeley serves as one of these centers, specializing in particle astrophysics.

When I became chancellor at Berkeley in 1990, I examined the university's research portfolio and noted that we were heavily skewed toward mission-oriented applied research with grants from government agencies such as the Departments of Defense, Energy, Transportation, and others. These programs accounted for about 45 percent of our extramural research funding; the National Institutes of Health made up 23 percent; and NSF programs constituted 22 percent. Grants from private industry accounted for the remainder.

It was my view that the NSF and NIH programs were more compatible with our educational mission, and should account for a larger share of our portfolio. To encourage this reorientation toward basic research, the university provided matching seed money. In a period of less than seven years, we were able to modify the mix of our governmental research portfolio so that one-third came from NSF, onethird from NIH, and one-third from mission-oriented or applied research programs. Indeed, this change served us well in increasing our extramural funding in the 1990s, as NIH and NSF have had a proportionally larger increase in their budget.

Merit-Based Funding Rewards Ideas, Not Relationships

Another distinctive feature of NSF-funded research is that funding is awarded based on the merits of the program as determined through peer review, rather than through personal contacts or relationships with funding agencies. This process gives all qualified individuals and institutions an opportunity for funding. In fact, the NSF has relationships with more than 2,000 American colleges, universities, and other research or educational institutions.

Nor is the merit review process an exclusive club. Each year, thousands of scientists and engineers assist the NSF by evaluating research proposals. I have had the privilege of being a principal investigator for NSF projects over the past 35 years, and I am continually delighted and amazed by the rich mosaic of ideas springing from our colleges and universities.

Every year, the NSF processes about 50,000 requests for funding. Some 30,000 new or renewal support proposals are competitively reviewed, and 9,000 new awards are made. Since 1952, more than 34,000 students in science, mathematics, and engineering have received support through NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

While NSF basic research grants afford researchers increased flexibility, good oversight also requires accountability. As an example, each of the Engineering Research Centers receives grants of up to five years. A mid-term appraisal monitors the progress of the research, again through peer review. Some under-performing programs have been terminated based on the findings of these evaluations. Other programs obtain constructive suggestions for further improvements from the peer review

Funding an Expanding Universe of Discovery

The current budget of the National Science Foundation is about $4 billion, which represents less than 4 percent of total annual federal spending for research and development. Yet, the NSF is a major source of funding for basic research at colleges and universities, providing 67 percent of the federal funds for basic research in computer science; 60 percent of funding for mathematics; 46 percent of funding for engineering; 46 percent of funding for environmental sciences; and 40 percent of funding for physical sciences. Given the scope of support the NSF provides, and considering all that is at stake, I would submit that the agency is woefully underfunded.

We must remember that the NSF is charged with supporting a continually expanding universe of discovery and exploration. As NSF Director Rita Colwell noted in a recent address to the New York Academy of Sciences, "We have a distinct set of responsibilities. It is our job to keep all fields of science and engineering focused on the furthest frontier, to recognize and nurture emerging fields, to support the work of those with the most insightful reach, and to prepare coming generations of scientific talent." As academicians, that is our job, too. It is logical that as the job gets bigger, the resources should grow proportionately.

Yet funding trends are going in the opposite direction. Three decades ago, more than 60 percent of the R&D funds in the United States were provided by the federal government. Today, federal government programs, including the NSF, provide only 30 percent. You get what you pay for, which is more applied research. Although we value the research investments made by business and industry, we also recognize the need to provide short-term payback. Today's shareholders expect a prompt return on their investment. Only basic research is geared toward exploring the entire spectrum of possibilities. The Council on Competitiveness has noted that "Most [industrial] R&D managers are investing with an eye on the bottom line, but more than a handful wonder from where the next generation of breakthrough technologies will come."

The partnership between government and educational institutions is a proven success. It works. We need only look to other countries to see the impact that the NSF idea has had on the global research community. Once exclusively an American process, the NSF model has been borrowed by countries in Europe and Asia because of its history of accomplishment and its efficient use of resources. One example is the Natural Sciences Foundation of China (NSFC), a successful and effective institution responsible for supporting China's basic research which has almost the identical mission, organization, and operation as those of the NSF.

Looking to the Future

Nothing will have greater impact on the future than developing the academic skills of new generations. Recent studies, which show American youth ranking well behind their peers in other developed countries in science and mathematics, give us ample cause for concern.

In 1999, the National Science Board (the governing board of the NSF), Parade magazine, and react magazine launched Jumpstart 2000, the largest public-private partnership of its kind, to develop a national science and technology challenge for students in grades K-12. Jumpstart 2000 encourages students to identify local or environmental problems and then develop solutions through research, science, and technology. The more we can involve our nation's young people in real-life problem solving, the better we can prepare them for the future. The NSF is calling on colleges and universities to play a leadership role in promoting the importance of science and math literacy for the nation's children. I know there are many ways in which we can contribute to this important initiative.

We also can expect the NSF to continue to push the frontiers of knowledge through both new and ongoing initiatives. One new study area is biocomplexity, the dynamic interaction among the earth's diverse environmental systems. Studying the interrelationships of the biological, physical, and social components of our environment will require an increased level of collaboration among many disciplines including medicine, engineering, science, and information technology. By contrast, the NSF has administered the U.S. Antarctic Program since its inception in 1959. Each year, more than 800 scientists and support staff gain a better understanding of our world through this unique polar laboratory.

With the growing recognition that global issues require global solutions, we are now seeing an increase in multinational research programs based on the NSF model. As noted earlier, countries in Europe and Asia have already adopted this model to develop their own government/academic research partnerships. In 1998, the NSF selected Indiana University and the University of Tennessee to lead the development of a highperformance communications system that links scientists, research facilities, and computing centers in the United States, the Asia Pacific Rim, and Russia. The resulting networks, TransPAC and MirNET, can speed the pace of discovery by enabling increased collaboration among scientists and educators.

Information technology, or IT, has become the driver of the new economy, generating an estimated one-third of our recent economic growth and producing millions of new jobs. The NSF has been named the lead agency in ITR (Information Technology for Research), a government-wide program to support long-term research in this area. I am confident that our nation's universities will play a large role in this important initiative.

We should be very proud of the work performed by our faculty and students in partnership with the National Science Foundation. It is indeed a model for the world. As we face the challenges of the new millennium, we need to build on this record of success. I would encourage you, as college and university leaders, to take a strong and proactive role in supporting and encouraging basic research, and to add your voice and influence to ensure that the NSF is adequately funded for the job ahead. That job is critical if America is to maintain its scientific and economic leadership.

CHANG-LIN TIEN is University Professor at the University of California system, NEC Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the National Science Board. He served as Berkeley's Chancellor from 1990 to 1997.

Copyright American Council on Education Spring 2000
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