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Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 16:22:42 -0500
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Subject: NSF TIPSHEET
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
January 23, 1996
For more information on these science news and feature story tips,
please contact the public information officer at the end of each item
at (703) 306-1070. Editor: Beth Gaston
***SPECIAL EDITION***
TWENTY-ONE DAY SHUTDOWN CAUSES
CRUNCH AT NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
The NSF is digging out from its own blizzard of paperwork left by the
unprecedented government shutdown. The NSF supports non-medical
science and engineering research and education through competitive
grants to about 2,000 institutions nationwide. The furlough postponed
dozens of panel meetings to review hundreds of proposals for research.
Researchers nationwide could not consult with NSF staff regarding
their proposal submissions. Technical support to state, urban and
rural education reform projects funded by NSF was suspended, which may
adversely impact these multi-million-dollar efforts. Hundreds of
science projects have been delayed or canceled, the budgets of
researchers at universities nationwide have been disrupted --
affecting funding for graduate students and innovative pilot
undergraduate courses across the country -- and the pace of science
exploration has slowed at a time when the U.S. faces more overseas
technology competition than ever before. This special issue of the
tipsheet examines the effects across the agency.
COMPUTER AND INFORMATION
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
The NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and
Engineering felt the crunch from the government shutdown. At least a
dozen CISE panels, workshops and program review meetings had to be
rescheduled for late January or early February due to the shutdown.
Participation by NSF computer scientists and engineers was also
reduced at conferences and joint agency meetings that took place
during the furlough. Upcoming meetings will also be affected: because
of the furlough, NSF staff were unable to mail out proposals for
review, which will give panelists less time to prepare. Mail -- sure
to contain a number of CISE proposals for funding -- is still backed
up in the mailroom.
The NSFNET program review and committee of visitors were both
canceled and will be rescheduled, probably in February. Delays of up
to six months in new renewal programs for the Networking Connections
Program and recompetition for the International Connections award are
expected. A new plan for NSF supercomputing support, Partnerships for
Advanced Computational Infrastructure, was approved by the National
Science Board Dec. 17, just before the second shutdown. This program
is proceeding with a two-week slippage in submission deadlines, and
the division of Advanced Scientific Computing is working to quickly
schedule a series of meetings to inform potential grantees about the
new program. [Beth Gaston]
POLAR PROGRAMS
The shutdown has hampered planning for a NSF-supported submarine
cruise planned to explore the Arctic Ocean this fall. Unlike
Antarctic research, soon to enter the quieter winter season, the main
Arctic research season is just ahead. The pricetag for the ten or so
research projects on the submarine cruise -- also supported by the
Office of Naval Research -- will be about $1 million. Without knowing
its budget, however, NSF's Office of Polar Programs cannot plan
exactly how much money to commit for researchers who need to buy
equipment, build instruments, and otherwise prepare for the September
research cruise.
The Arctic Ocean is the least explored of the world's oceans, and
the studies on this cruise beneath the ice pack will provide
information about climate change, ocean circulation and ice cover,
biology, and the geological history of the Arctic basin. [Lynn
Simarski]
MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
More than 100 panelists were scheduled to meet at the NSF in
early January to evaluate pre-proposals from 628 proposers for a
major, $12-million, agency-wide initiative on optical science and
engineering -- a meeting deferred by the shutdown. Led jointly by
NSF's Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and the
Directorate for Engineering, the panels were organized by program
officers from six different research directorates and one office who
made travel and lodging arrangements for the panelists and prepared
proposal packages -- a major logistical effort that must be made once
again for the evaluation meeting, which has been rescheduled for
mid-February.
[Lynn Simarski]
SOCIAL, BEHAVIORAL AND ECONOMIC SCIENCES
In the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences,
at least four major meetings to advance international cooperation in
science -- with scientists from Russia, Japan, Mexico and South
America -- were postponed and must be rescheduled. In one case, the
furlough upset an already tight schedule for NSF and other U.S.
agencies to prepare for the Summit of the Americas meeting of science
and engineering ministers from throughout the western hemisphere,
scheduled for late March 1996. Panel meetings to review proposals for
research in decision, risk and management science were delayed
twice and finally canceled over the furlough. Payment of contracts to
initiate research, such as a new National Consortium for Research on
Violence, has been delayed.
Annual studies and surveys have been delayed. Two economic
surveys -- one tracking corporate expenditures for research and
development, another on college graduates -- are looking at delays of
a month or more since these are based on census figures from the
Bureau of the Census which was also closed. [George Chartier]
ENGINEERING
Among engineering programs, four of eleven on-site inspections of
current and proposed research centers around the nation had to be
rescheduled. One of these sites was ready to begin on the day of the
first shut down in November, and industry sponsors for the center,
already on campus and awaiting NSF engineers, had to return home.
Funding for their visits came from industry and will have to be paid
for again if they wish to attend the rescheduled site visits. For all
the canceled visits the hardship fell on the site visitors, the
Engineering Research Center teams and their industrial sponsors who
had to shift schedules, repeat rehearsals for the visits, and cancel
subcontractors and hotels providing services to the site visits. One
final selection panel meeting had to be rescheduled from January to
April, slowing down the process by three months. [George Chartier]
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