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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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Louis Pellegrino, Director                            O
Office of Sponsored Programs                         Y_,_|[ ]|
Purdue Research Foundation/Purdue University        {|_|_|_P_|
xxxxxx@dsp.purdue.edu                         //-oo--OO
(317) 494-6200

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