More than 550 frustrated ecologists and evolutionary biologists sent a letter to the National Science Foundation (NSF) last week, blasting the agency’s new grant proposal process. The letter claimed the new process slows the progress of science, places young faculty in peril, and hinders collaborative projects; NSF officials said the old process was broken.
The new process, announced in 2011 for the environmental biology and integrative organizational systems divisions of NSF, cuts the number of grant cycles per year from two to one, and limits the number of proposals each scientist can submit to two. Now, scientists can submit up to two 4-page pre-proposals in January, and NSF reviewers invite a fraction of those to submit a full 15-page proposal in August.
In addition to fewer opportunities to submit proposals, receive feedback, and contribute to collaborative proposals, scientists worry that long gaps in funding—successful researchers will see funding roughly a ...
