Agencies use the goals in agency strategic plans and annual performance plans to inform annual budget decisions, longer-term investment planning, and human resource planning. The agency’s strategic goals and objectives are listed below.
Strategic Goal: Transform the Frontiers.
Objective: Make investments that lead to emerging new fields of science and engineering and shifts in existing fields.
Description: Potentially transformative research is a major focus of recent legislation, the Administration’s priorities, and the NSB report, Enhancing Support for Transformative Research at NSF. Transformative research leads to the emergence of new fields and/or extraordinary shifts in existing fields and, by its nature, has significant impact on the frontiers of Science and Engineering (S&E), and on improvements in education. And, transformative research leads to important new discoveries. While NSF’s entire portfolio contributes to transforming the frontiers, the Foundation is committed to including in our portfolio a subset of research projects that hold unusual potential for transformative outcomes. To address this long-term performance goal, NSF will:
– Invest in challenging, potentially transformative research,
– Sharpen the merit-review process to better identify such research, and
– Emphasize interdisciplinary and system-oriented approaches that often lead to transformational concepts. At the same time, NSF, in partnership with other Federal agencies and with counterpart funding agencies in other countries, will explore ways to describe both the portfolio and its outcomes to highlight the emergence of new fields and significant change within existing fields in order to assess progress toward reaching this performance goal.
Objective: Prepare and engage a diverse Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce motivated to participate at the frontiers.
Description: Transforming the frontiers requires scientists and engineers who are trained and motivated to tackle the difficult challenges of working in uncharted territory. Throughout our history, NSF has been the agency charged with ensuring the nation’s capacity to generate the workforce needed to meet these challenges. NSF’s primary approach to addressing this performance goal is the integration of research and education. Thus, the development of talented young people includes connection to the frontiers of knowledge and direct experience in the conduct of research in the U.S. and in other countries. The Foundation promotes inquiry-based instructional practices and ongoing research on the process of learning and the practice of education to improve the nation’s capacity to draw in and retain students in STEM fields, including students from underrepresented groups and institutions. All of these research-oriented programs seek to ensure a healthy balance of new investigators, broad participation from throughout the S&E community, and support for students and postdoctoral researchers involved in research projects. The outcome of these efforts will be an expanded, more inclusive STEM workforce engaged in transforming the frontiers.
Priority Goal: Develop a diverse and highly qualified science and technology workforce.
Goal Statement: Develop a diverse and highly qualified science and technology workforce.
By September 30, 2013, 80% of institutions funded through National Science Foundation’s (NSF) undergraduate programs document the extent of use of proven instructional practices.
Description: This priority goal addresses NSF’s long-term core commitment to the importance of undergraduate education in engaging and preparing a diverse and highly qualified science and engineering (S&E) workforce. Recent literature indicates that the number of jobs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is growing at a rate faster than the number of STEM professionals graduating from institutions in the United States, and that measures should be taken to increase the number of qualified STEM graduates. In the report, “Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” (2012), the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) argued that “retaining more students in STEM majors is the lowest-cost, fastest policy option to providing the STEM professionals that the nation needs for economic and societal well-being.” (pg. 9). While many factors influence the persistence rate of students in STEM majors, one reason students have provided is the lackluster introductory courses that do not offer them the support they need to succeed in those classes. Furthermore, research shows that evidence-based instructional practices lead to improved student learning and thus are a useful metric for assessing impact on a well-prepared workforce.
PCAST, whose “Engage to Excel” report put forth recommendations on how to improve undergraduate STEM education, is not the only group concerned with this issue. In October 2011, the Association of American Universities (AAU) committed to a five-year initiative for improving undergraduate STEM education through the development of a framework for assessing and improving the quality of STEM teaching and learning. In recognition of the importance of this topic, in September 2009, NSF funded the National Research Council to undertake a synthesis study regarding the status, contributions, and future directions of discipline-based education research (DBER) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. DBER combines knowledge of teaching and learning with deep knowledge of discipline-specific science content. The study addresses questions that are essential to advancing DBER and broadening its impact on undergraduate science teaching and learning. It was released in May 2012. Another way that NSF can advance its efforts to invest in the preparation of a strong S&E workforce is by encouraging and facilitating the use of empirically-based instructional practices in undergraduate STEM education. To do this first means establishing a baseline about the use of such practices. Institutions funded by NSF’s undergraduate STEM education programs will be the most critical partners in this endeavor. Faculty members in those institutions will provide the baseline data about the nature of STEM instructional practices. A variety of organizations invested in STEM undergraduate education will also contribute to the achievement of this goal. Such stakeholder groups as the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the Association of American Universities (AAU) will collaborate to define key terms, identify proven practices, and assist with engagement of the universities.
A number of key barriers and challenges need to be addressed to achieve this goal, including stakeholder willingness and capacity, institutional motivation and capacity to supply data about undergraduate instructional practices, and the academic calendar.
Objective: Keep the United States globally competitive at the frontiers of knowledge by increasing international partnerships and collaborations.
Description: The National Science Board (NSB) describes the rapidly changing global nature of the S&E enterprise in its report, “Globalization of Science and Engineering Research: A Companion to Science and Engineering Indicators 2010.” This performance goal acknowledges that international engagement will be critical to keeping the United States globally competitive at the frontiers of knowledge, while recognizing the need to focus NSF’s efforts on those international partnerships and investments that will have the greatest S&E impact. As S&E expertise and infrastructure advance across the globe, it is expected that the United States will increasingly benefit from international collaborations and a globally engaged workforce leading to transformational S&E breakthroughs. Therefore, NSF will promote cooperation among scientists and engineers from all nations and encourage funding of international collaborative activities through all of our programs, relying on the merit review process to assess the added value of proposed international activities in advancing research and education objectives and infrastructure. NSF also will work with our counterpart funding agencies in other countries to lower barriers to collaboration for our scientists, engineers, and students, and encourage jointly funded, bilateral, and multilateral projects.
Objective: Enhance research infrastructure and promote data access to support researchers and educators capabilities and enable transformation at the frontiers.
Description: A major element in the ability to expand S&E knowledge in general, as well as transform the frontiers, is having tools that enable new capabilities for measurement, observation, manipulation, and experimentation. Since NSF’s inception, we have developed and maintained forefront infrastructure capability for the broad academic S&E community in coordination with other research agencies. Investments in various multi-user research facilities such as vessels, astronomical observatories, particle accelerators, the U.S. Antarctic stations, seismic observatories, and many others comprise a significant fraction (approximately 15 percent) of NSF’s portfolio. Additional components of the infrastructure portfolio include large datasets based on NSF-supported surveys, the provision of shared-use equipment for academic researchers, and interdisciplinary centers. The advent of widespread use of computational and communications capabilities across all S&E fields, and in STEM education, has made cyber infrastructure, including its easy access and use, a vital element of tools and capabilities provided by NSF. The Foundation aims to develop and maintain infrastructure that enhances researchers and educators capabilities and productivity through management that accounts for and demonstrates best practices. Key to achieving this performance goal will be partnering with other agencies for coordination or exploring opportunities to make complementary investments, working with academic institutions seeking to enhance capability for their faculty and students, and with international partners in situations where complementary investments enhance infrastructure capability or where no one organization can bear the full cost. NSF also brings the concept of broadening participation to infrastructure, ensuring that diverse students and faculty at all types of institutions throughout the nation have access to the infrastructure.
Priority Goal: Increase opportunities for research and education through public access to high-value digital products of NSF-funded research.
Goal Statement: Increase opportunities for research and education through public access to high-value digital products of NSF-funded research.
By September 30, 2013, NSF will have established policies for public access to high-value data and software in at least two data-intensive scientific domains.
Description: Digital data are increasingly becoming one of the primary products of scientific research. As advanced by the National Science Board, open data sharing is closely linked with public access to scholarly publications resulting from federally funded unclassified research, and should be considered in concert. The digital data underlying the figures and key findings in this literature should be accessible and linked to one another so that scientists can verify and reproduce major findings from within this material, as well as repurpose data to enable new discoveries. Simultaneously, access to research data enhances openness and transparency in the scientific enterprise and enables new types of multidisciplinary research and education.
Furthermore, in a memorandum dated February 22, the Director of OSTP makes clear the Administration’s commitment to ensuring that the direct results of federally funded scientific research are made available to and useful for the public, industry, and the scientific community at large. NSF will, within six months, produce a plan for implementing the memorandum’s requirements.
For those reasons and others, it is increasingly important for NSF to facilitate and encourage access to data and research results. NSF must encourage a publishing environment that includes new norms and practices for citation and attribution so that data producers, software and tool developers, and data curators are credited with their contributions. Artificial barriers to access can slow progress and stifle opportunities for innovation. By contrast, an open networked environment will allow the evolution of knowledge and arguments to be discovered and followed through time and across disciplines, as well as verified and reproduced by other researchers. The priority goal supports this vision of increasingly collaborative and multidisciplinary science by enabling data to flow more easily across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
NSF’s long-term priority goal is to make results of NSF-funded research data broadly available and accessible with minimal barriers. Availability of NSF research data and a fully-fledged NSF public access policy will have the effect of accelerating progress in scientific research and encouraging citizens to become more scientifically literate.
This priority goal has been established in response to the growing importance of scientific discovery of data and software. Growth of the volume and importance of data and associated software in modern science has been as rapid as the general growth of computational power. With appropriate software and analysis tools, scientists can use this data to test hypotheses and draw significant conclusions. Interested students and citizens who aren’t necessarily trained as scientists can also use data to participate in the scientific process. Citizen-scientists have already made notable discoveries including a West Virginia high-school student who was personally recognized by President Barack Obama for his discovery of a millisecond pulsar using data provided by an NSF astronomy facility.
The aim of this goal is that by the end of the 2013, NSF’s portfolio will include and promote an emphasis and focus on testbeds and pilots that address research data issues. The expectation is that these test beds and pilots will, in turn, also lead to near-term contributions to community capabilities and real-world outcomes.
Priority Goal: Develop a diverse and highly qualified science and technology workforce.
Goal Statement: By September 30, 2013, 80% of institutions funded through National Science Foundation’s (NSF) undergraduate programs document the extent of use of proven instructional practices.
Description: This priority goal addresses NSF’s long-term core commitment to the importance of undergraduate education in engaging and preparing a diverse and highly qualified science and engineering (S&E) workforce. Recent literature indicates that the number of jobs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is growing at a rate faster than the number of STEM professionals graduating from institutions in the United States, and that measures should be taken to increase the number of qualified STEM graduates. In the report, “Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” (2012), the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) argued that “retaining more students in STEM majors is the lowest-cost, fastest policy option to providing the STEM professionals that the nation needs for economic and societal well-being.” (pg. 9). While many factors influence the persistence rate of students in STEM majors, one reason students have provided is the lackluster introductory courses that do not offer them the support they need to succeed in those classes. Furthermore, research shows that evidence-based instructional practices lead to improved student learning and thus are a useful metric for assessing impact on a well-prepared workforce.
PCAST, whose “Engage to Excel” report put forth recommendations on how to improve undergraduate STEM education, is not the only group concerned with this issue. In October 2011, the Association of American Universities (AAU) committed to a five-year initiative for improving undergraduate STEM education through the development of a framework for assessing and improving the quality of STEM teaching and learning. In recognition of the importance of this topic, in September 2009, NSF funded the National Research Council to undertake a synthesis study regarding the status, contributions, and future directions of discipline-based education research (DBER) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. DBER combines knowledge of teaching and learning with deep knowledge of discipline-specific science content. The study addresses questions that are essential to advancing DBER and broadening its impact on undergraduate science teaching and learning. It was released in May 2012. Another way that NSF can advance its efforts to invest in the preparation of a strong S&E workforce is by encouraging and facilitating the use of empirically-based instructional practices in undergraduate STEM education. To do this first means establishing a baseline about the use of such practices.
Institutions funded by NSF’s undergraduate STEM education programs will be the most critical partners in this endeavor. Faculty members in those institutions will provide the baseline data about the nature of STEM instructional practices. A variety of organizations invested in STEM undergraduate education will also contribute to the achievement of this goal. Such stakeholder groups as the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the Association of American Universities (AAU) will collaborate to define key terms, identify proven practices, and assist with engagement of the universities.
A number of key barriers and challenges need to be addressed to achieve this goal, including stakeholder willingness and capacity, institutional motivation and capacity to supply data about undergraduate instructional practices, and the academic calendar.
Strategic Goal: Innovate for Society.
Objective: NSF’s mission speaks to addressing societal needs; thus, the Foundation looks for ways to link the results of fundamental research and resources derived from this research to national and global policy areas in which S&E can play a significant role. NSF’s longstanding commitment to addressing societal needs is largely achieved through investments at the frontiers, in efforts in education, and by partnerships. Engaging stakeholders directly in identifying key societal needs and ensuring communication about those needs with NSF staff involved in program planning and development and with investigators conducting relevant work are critical to addressing this performance goal. While the primary focus of NSF-supported research is the generation of new knowledge, NSF programs, where appropriate, consider stakeholder input to optimize the utility of research to address societal needs. Partnerships catalyzed between academia, industry, and the government throughout the U.S., and around the globe, shape NSF programs. NSF creates strategic collaborations with other agencies, academia, and the private sector to enable the translation of fundamental research to usable contexts as rapidly as possible. The Foundation regularly matches investigators with potential users of the outcomes of research through programs, workshops, and other means. NSF also establishes long-term relationships with industry and other agencies through memoranda of understanding (MOUs), Letters of Agreement, and joint announcements.
Objective: Build the capacity of the nation’s citizenry for addressing societal challenges through science and engineering.
Description: Building human capacity to address societal needs requires attention to the preparation and continued learning of tomorrow’s STEM workforce as well as attention to STEM literacy for the public at large. NSF is committed to reaching across society to ensure that the rich diversity of the nation’s cultures is well represented in the STEM workforce and that individuals engaged in STEM fields are trained to participate fully in the global research enterprise. These efforts will expand our capacity for synergy-simultaneously bringing the country’s range of intellectual power and cultural perspective to bear on the most challenging problems. A growing body of research in learning and STEM education serves as the basis for guiding NSF programs and creating the links among schools, community colleges, colleges and universities, workplaces, and informal education mechanisms that are critical to workforce preparation and STEM literacy. The scientific literacy of society is central to the progress of science and is a necessary backdrop for innovation. Given the complex and technical challenges that society faces, ranging in scope from personal to global, it is vital that resources and opportunities for continued access to cutting-edge science are broadly available.
Objective: Support the development of innovative learning systems.
Description: Technologies are already deeply entwined with people’s lives, especially the lives of young learners. Fully embracing such technologies as learning tools in the nation’s classrooms and laboratories, and living rooms and libraries, is part of innovating for society. Science itself is being transformed through networked computing and communications technologies. Networked computing and communications technologies that support learning, teaching, and education are already opening up access for all learners, in all age groups, in all settings. Innovative learning systems can bring authentic scientific data immediately to learners, which enable learners to experience science through modeling, simulation, sensor networks, digital telescopes and remote instruments. Technology has the potential to transform science learning as effectively as it has transformed science itself. Learning can occur anytime, anywhere, and for anyone.
Priority Goal: Increase the number of entrepreneurs emerging from university laboratories.
Goal Statement: Increase the number of entrepreneurs emerging from university laboratories.
By September 30, 2013, 80 percent of teams participating in the Innovation Corps program will have tested the commercial viability of their product or service.
Description: The NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) is a set of activities and programs that prepare scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory and broadens the impact of select NSF-funded basic research projects.
While knowledge gained from NSF-supported basic research frequently advances a particular field of science or engineering, some results also show immediate potential for broader applicability and impact in the commercial world. Such results may be translated through I-Corps into technologies with near-term benefits for the economy and society.
Combining experience and guidance from established entrepreneurs with a targeted curriculum, I-Corps is a public-private partnership program that teaches grantees to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and offers entrepreneurship training for student participants. I-Corps Teams–composed of academic researchers, student entrepreneurs and business mentors–have participated in the I-Corps curriculum administered via on-site activities through one of several I-Corps Nodes and online instruction. In addition, in January 2013, the suite of innovation programs was expanded to include I-Corps Sites that are funded to provided resources to local teams at academic institutions to enable those teams to explore transition of projects into the marketplace.
Strategic Goal: Perform as a Model Organization
Objective: Achieve management excellence through leadership, accountability, and personal responsibility.
Description: When the people who comprise NSF-career staff, rotators, and contractors-clearly understand their roles and responsibilities in service to the agency’s mission, NSF will be at its best as an effective, efficient organization. Therefore, communicating clear standards and expectations is part of an ongoing conversation within NSF, engaging those involved in research programs and in agency administration, and aimed at generating a results-oriented performance culture. It is particularly important that NSF management be held to the highest standards to reflect NSF’s commitment to performance excellence. It is the responsibility of each manager to provide an operational environment that promotes integrity, creativity, and fiscal accountability. New NSF managers will be integrated into the agency through mandatory elements of the New Executive Transition (NExT) program, mentoring, and executive coaching. NSF will build on lessons learned from the experiences of all staff, including our rotators who bring fresh ideas and viewpoints. NSF has a major commitment to diversity and fair treatment of all current and prospective employees and is taking action necessary to become a model Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) agency.
Objective: Infuse learning as an essential element of the NSF culture with emphasis on professional development and personal growth.
Description: NSF stresses personal learning and development to enhance performance, further our knowledge base on all aspects of NSF activity, and continue to build for the future. For example, NSF fosters personal responsibility for professional growth through use of Individual Development Plans (IDP) and Independent Research and Development (IRD) Plans across the agency, while expecting managers to provide needed guidance on the development of such plans. NSF reinforces this effort by investing in staff education and learning resources (e.g., Program Manager Seminars, Embassy Science Fellows, AcademyLearn, policy “town hall” meetings, certification programs, on-line courses) as well as targeted development opportunities to upgrade skills and knowledge of all staff as individuals and as members of teams working toward common objectives. Each manager will work with his or her staff to promote learning as the foundation of NSF’s performance culture.
Objective: Encourage and sustain a culture of creativity and innovation across the agency to ensure continuous improvement and achieve high levels of customer service.
Description: While NSF supports potentially transformative research through our grant programs, we also promote internal institutional transformation through creativity and innovation. Currently, NSF is taking a new and novel approach to become a model Federal steward with regard to environmental responsibility and sustainability. In the continued transition to fully electronic business processes, we are transforming the processes underlying our proposal decision and award actions. NSF is working to improve internal administrative processes on a continuing basis to provide efficient, effective service for all NSF staff. The current NSF headquarters lease expires in December 2013. The Future NSF project is tasked with ensuring NSF’s core mission and the business of the agency are expressed and supported by the design and function of the future NSF headquarters. NSF’s success as a world-class, grant-awarding institution is dependent on the business processes, both programmatic and administrative, that support the agency each and every day. NSF continues to maintain a leadership role in Federal grants management in service to research and education constituencies. NSF is committed to standardization and streamlining of Federal systems that interface with the grantee community, so that our grantees can operate their business systems accountably and efficiently. Through continued development of Research.gov, NSF is exploring creative mechanisms to be even more transparent and accountable to the research community and the American public. NSF also pursues strategies that strengthen accountability efforts of the awardee community through business assistance and reporting tools. In addition, NSF is taking steps to improve contract management and oversight throughout all acquisition phases. NSF applies a spirit of experimentation to its own business processes. This is aimed both at making the organization more efficient and effective as well as stimulating creativity in the research and education activities we support. This commitment is a defining element of this plan, and it will be visible in numerous ways over the next five years.
