NSF HOPES TO BOOST ITS SUPPORT FOR INDIVIDUAL GRANTS

Volume 5, #5The Scientist March 4, 1991 NSF HOPES TO BOOST ITS SUPPORT FOR INDIVIDUAL GRANTS Author: Jeffrey Mervis Date: March 4, 1991 WASHINGTON--There's more for individual investigators in the 1992 proposed budget for the National Science Foundation. But whether that translates into bigger grants or more awards, should the money still be there in the fall when Congress completes action on the federal budget, is a question that NSF officials expect to be answered individually by the foundation's five research directorates. The president's overall request for $2.72 billion--an increase of $406 million, or 17.5 percent--for the agency contains the usual array of offerings for scientists. About half of the $270 million boost in research should be available to program managers to fund additional investigator-initiated research, estimates acting NSF director Fred Bernthal. In addition, he says, most of the specially targeted programs will end up supporting individual scientists. The NSF budget is sprinkled with such new initiatives, some open to all fields and others aimed at a specific subdiscipline. A $50 million program addresses the need of university researchers of all stripes for costly scientific instruments. A $23.5 million request would begin construction of a $110 million gravity wave detector, a tool that astrophysicists say will help probe the origins of the universe. The NSF budget also seeks $16 million more to continue work on two 8-meter optical telescopes and an additional $25 million for scientists and engineers to pursue research on the synthesis and processing of advanced materials. All in all, the foundation's budget request greatly pleases NSF officials. "I must have the easiest job in Washington today," Bernthal told reporters last month at a budget briefing. "This budget will permit us to do three things: expand our research base, boost competitiveness, and maintain the country's technological leadership." (Walter Massey, Bush's nominee to succeed Erich Bloch as NSF director, appeared February 7 before the Senate and is expected to sail through the confirmation process and be on board no later than mid-March. Massey told senators that he was not involved in drawing up the 1992 budget, and he declined to answer questions about its contents until after he takes office.) Not everything would grow under the proposed budget, however. University administrators who were counting on money to renovate research buildings (commonly referred to as "bricks and mortar" to distinguish them from individual pieces of scientific equipment) have lost a $20 million-per-year program that issued its first round of awards only six weeks ago. Supporters of campus-based, interdisciplinary efforts--typified by the science and technology centers and the engineering research centers--will have to settle for continued funding of existing centers. And advocates of more graduate training fellowships are being asked to settle for a constant level of 1,100 new awards--although the size of the stipend will grow by $1,200, to $14,000 annually, to ease the effects of inflation. For administration officials, the NSF budget is a fulfillment of their repeated promises to bolster support for individual investigators. Indeed, John White, acting NSF deputy director, says that the proposal to boost spending on materials science owes its existence to such a commitment. "It's unusual for NSF to get such strong support for the continuation of a program," White says, referring to an existing $59 million effort across several directorates. "The only reason it got a 42 percent increase was because it will benefit individual investigators, working in small groups, at campuses around the country." How those funds are disbursed, however, won't be known for many months. Last year the success rate for all peer-reviewed grants was around 31 percent, based on 28,278 applications. NSF officials can't say how an influx of funds would change that percentage because, unlike officials at the National Institutes of Health, they do not establish a set number of grants to be funded each year. But controller Sandra Toye estimates that the success rate should rise "a few percentage points" if Congress grants the full increase. At the same time, Bernthal says that there is growing pressure to increase the size of individual grants, which on average have grown little in the past several years. Foundation officials say some programs, in fact, have set such growth as a priority in the coming year. The 1992 NSF budget contains several new wrinkles. One of the most controversial is the administration's decision to drop a two-year-old academic facilities program. A congressional favorite, the program announced its first awards in January, distributing $39 million to institutions in 37 states. At Massey's confirmation hearing, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) made it clear that he and other supporters of the program weren't happy with the excision. "With a budget that goes up 18 percent, zeroing out the facilities program doesn't make any sense," Kennedy, who chairs the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, complained to Massey. "And then they propose a $50 million program for instrumentation. We're going to resist that decision, I can tell you that." After the hearing, Kennedy said that he supported instrumentation as well and didn't feel that Congress should be forced to choose between the two programs. "We're going to try for more [than $20 million]," he said about the facilities program, "but not at the expense of instrumentation." P>

NSF HOPES TO BOOST ITS SUPPORT FOR INDIVIDUAL GRANTS

NSF HOPES TO BOOST ITS SUPPORT FOR INDIVIDUAL GRANTS

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