Funding Briefs

This Time They Really Mean It The first time NSF ran its competition for science and technology centers, a fleet of Federal Express trucks pulled up to the agency’s loading dock on the Jan. 15, 1988, deadline and disgorged telephone-book-sized proposals. The length and complexity of many of the 323 proposals.threatened to oveiwhelm the agency’s merit review system. There’s got to be a better way, thought program director William Harris. So this year, as part of its second r


Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
2:00
Share

The first time NSF ran its competition for science and technology centers, a fleet of Federal Express trucks pulled up to the agency’s loading dock on the Jan. 15, 1988, deadline and disgorged telephone-book-sized proposals. The length and complexity of many of the 323 proposals.threatened to oveiwhelm the agency’s merit review system. There’s got to be a better way, thought program director William Harris.

So this year, as part of its second round of proposals, NSF revised the submission requirements. Page limits were set for each section of the application, and no page was to exceed about 400 words. In bold type, NSF warned institutions that those who failed to comply would be disqualified. But old habits die hard. A few days after this year’s August 4 deadline, Harris did a spot check of about half the 147 proposals and found that most had violated the specified format. Some eager ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

sartorius logo
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo

Products

Photo of a researcher overseeing large scale production processes in a laboratory.

Scaling Lentiviral Vector Manufacturing for Optimal Productivity

Thermo Fisher Logo
Collage-style urban graphic of wastewater surveillance and treatment

Putting Pathogens to the Test with Wastewater Surveillance

An illustration of an mRNA molecule in front of a multicolored background.

Generating High-Quality mRNA for In Vivo Delivery with lipid nanoparticles

Thermo Fisher Logo
Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide